


Bridging the Gaps

by ingie



Series: Asgard and Midgard enjoy diplomatic relations. Somehow. [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Drama, F/M, Family, Friendship, Gen, Intrigue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-24
Updated: 2013-10-31
Packaged: 2017-12-30 09:32:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1016998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ingie/pseuds/ingie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set post-Avengers, and ignoring every spoiler and new canon that has happened after that.</p><p>Thor brings Loki back, and then it all begins. The Bifrost is still broken, but Jane is working on that. Asgard is cut off from the rest of the realms, and everyone is going stir-crazy. Thor tries to act like a grown-up. Heimdall listens to rumours of unrest. Loki is bitter in jail. Sif speaks her mind. Darcy has finished her degree. Jane has to redefine the laws of physics. Odin and Frigga are conflicted parents. And Balder exists...somewhere. </p><p>The storm is about to break, but will he who brings storms break first?</p><p>(Mostly gen, but with a hint of a pairing.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Reacquaintance

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been in my head for long time (I wrote the outline for it in March), but I couldn't seem to write it. Every bit of a new spoiler kept throwing me off, and it was very dialogue-heavy. At last, I said "screw it" and wrote it anyway, ignoring every spoiler, and decided I would post it before the new movie is out.
> 
> It's still dialogue-heavy, but that's not necessarily bad. You guys decide.

Thor entered the cell where Loki had been put, in a secret underground SHIELD facility. The cell was bare apart from one bunk, which was sagging under Loki’s weight, and a toilet in one corner. Loki had one arm slung over his eyes, and he was lying completely still aside from the rise and fall of his chest.

Thor glared at the wall where he could feel the humming of the artificial eyes and ears trained on them, and resolved to not allow the Allspeak to let them understand. He could feel the exhaustion in his bones, the pain in his heart. He could still taste the shawarma on his tongue, hear the tired conversation that didn’t go anywhere that he’d recently had with these people he’d fought beside. He knew that he would give anything to be anywhere but in this cell.

“They tell me you’ve attempted to incite them to attack you,” he said softly.

Loki made a sound that could almost qualify as a laugh. “Are you concerned that I will use the opportunity if they enter my cell to escape?”

“Yes,” Thor responded blandly. “I am also concerned that you will allow them to succeed.”

Loki removed his arm from his face and sat up, staring at him. “Are you accusing me of seeking my own death?”

“You’ve done little to convince me otherwise,” Thor replied quietly. Loki opened his mouth as if to argue, but Thor continued: “This latest plan of yours, for instance…”

“Having a plan is not suicidal, Thor,” Loki snapped. “Perhaps you should try it sometime.”

Thor looked around the cell pointedly, before he looked back at Loki. “And how would you say this plan has worked out for you?” he asked.

Loki glared at him silently.

“You will be taken back to Asgard,” Thor said, volume rising in his voice as he made the pronouncement. “You will be tried before the council, and given a chance to explain your actions.” He returned the glare. “Please say that you know what the charges will be.”

“Attempted murder of the heir,” Loki replied as nastily as he could. “Seizing the throne.”

Thor refused to flinch. “No. With Father indisposed and me banished, the throne was yours by right, and would have been even were Balder not on Vanaheim. As for the other thing, offenses against me are mine to forgive, and so that will not be taken into consideration during your trial.”

“Thor,” Loki said intensely, “ _let me go_. I swear I shan’t trouble you again.”

“And what of everyone else?” Thor demanded. “Shall you trouble them? No, Loki. I cannot. I wish I could.”

He pushed off the wall and walked to the door, pausing before it. “One word of advice, brother,” he said. “The council may be more amendable if you show you understand why what you have done merits recompense.” 

“You expect me to fall on my knees and beg forgiveness,” Loki snapped. “Well, that is long in the coming. Bring your dubious mercy.”

“We have no treaties with Midgard,” Thor snapped. “I have heard them speak of what would be done with you, were you to stay. Embellishments aside, it’s clearly not outside the realm of possibility to execute wrongdoers of your ilk here. Indeed, given how hard it is to keep you from escaping, this seems the most likely possibility.” He turned to glare at Loki. “Or should we give you to the world you’ve wronged the worst? How would you fare on Jotunheim, brother?”

Thor turned back to the door, signalling the guard outside that he was ready to leave. He threw one last comment over his shoulder to Loki: “Make no mistake. Bringing you to Asgard _is_ mercy. We are the only ones interested in keeping you alive.”

With that he left the cell.

*****  
Jane had decided pretty early on that Norwegians were weird. They were at the same time friendly and distant, rude and polite, nationalistic and self-deprecating. They ate hamburgers and pizza and cornflakes, but few had even heard of Pop-Tarts, and in general, breakfast cereal was much less popular than the rows of rows of different bread. Waffles were a dessert food, occasionally eaten with brown goat’s cheese, but more often with jam or sugar. “Going for a walk”, if it was early enough, meant going for a hike. And they didn’t sleep at night.

At least not here in Tromsø, far above the Polar Circle, in summer when the sun didn’t set. They sat outside drinking beer with blankets around them because summer or not, it wasn’t particularly warm – although Norwegians apparently considered 15C warm enough to wear shorts (she mentally converted that to Fahrenheit, got 59 and shivered).

But because of this “Do Not Sleep Away the Summer Nights”-attitude, it meant that she was awake and at a pub that had television with her colleagues when the news of the attack on New York came on. They’d had to drag her away from the lab, where she was trying to figure out if there was any residential energy in Stuttgart she could pick up on – it had been left with strings of red tape, and Jane was getting frustrated.

She saw the shaky footage of a giant spaceworm descending on New York. She saw a green monster smashing aliens, the blur of Stark’s Iron Man. And she saw a flash of red cape and a hammer followed by lightning.

Murmurs of “Tor med hammeren” and “Tordenguden” were spreading around her, because people automatically made that connection here. Jane didn’t listen. She sat staring at the television screen. And when it was all over, she went back to her lab and began Skyping with Darcy, trying to find out more.

Her phone rang in the middle of a “no, Jane, for the seventh time, I haven’t heard from Erik either”. She picked it up in annoyance without checking the number and barked, “Yeah!”

Silence on the other end.

Jane mentally kicked herself. “Sorry. Hello? This is Dr. Jane Foster. Who am I talking to?”

From the other end she heard someone let out a heavy breath, before a deep baritone breathed her name. _”Jane”._

Jane’s stomach dropped. “Thor?” she whispered. 

_”Aye.”_

“But…I…how?”

_”Agent Hill of SHIELD showed me how to use this communication device. Quite clever, this.”_

Alarm bells flared. “SHIELD? Thor, they’re probably listening in. They’re probably recording…um, capturing the sound for later use. We’re not talking privately.”

_”Then I shan’t allow them to understand.”_

Jane squirmed. “Thor, as long as you’re speaking English, or any other Earth language for that matter…”

 _”But I am not.”_ She could hear the laughter in his voice, now. _”I am using the Allspeak, and it will only be understood by those I choose to let listen. I may extend that to you, as this device uses forces similar to those I wield.”_

He was talking about electricity, Jane realised. It was easier to focus on that than _magical linguistics._

 _I guess that answers the question of whether or not linguistics counts as a science_ , she thought giddily, remembering his statement that magic and science were the same thing where he came from.

*Jane, what’s happening?* came Darcy’s voice from the computer. *Where did you go?*

“Thor’s on the phone,” Jane replied. “Talk to you later.” She closed the laptop before Darcy had a chance to say anything.

“Thor,” she said, turning back to the phone. “I…how long can you stay?”

At the other end of the line, Thor sighed heavily. _“The Tesseract will be ready to transport Loki and me back to Asgard tomorrow. I would come see you, but I dare not put that amount of distance between us – I fear he may do something. It was only barely I dared join my new companions for a meal.”_

“That’s okay,” Jane said hastily. “If you’re leaving tomorrow anyway. It’s an eight-hour flight both ways, or more…”

Thor chuckled. _”I dare say I can cross the distance in less time than that.”_

Given that his people had perfected inter-dimensional travel, that didn’t surprise her. Speaking of… “What happened? You said you would come back, but it’s been more than a year. I was afraid…There were times I thought maybe you’d been killed. Again. And those weird readings that came right after you’d left…” 

_”Forgive me, Jane. I had to destroy the bridge. It would have ripped apart a world.”_

Jane blinked. “Good reason. So, what, did you repair it? Or did you find another way? Right in time to help?” That sounded a bit suspicious.

_”Another way existed, though not without significant cost. This situation was deemed dire enough to merit sending me. My missing you was not.”_

That rankled, though Jane had to admit that “possible world conquering” was more dire than “misses woman he’s known for three days”. Also, something he’d said finally caught up with her.

“Loki? As in, that brother you were going to have words with? The one who killed you? That Loki? He’s behind this?”

 _”He is not well,”_ Thor sighed. _“He must have seen something after he fell…he fell off the bridge after I destroyed it, and tumbled through Ginnugagap. It must have done something to his mind.”_

“Sending Metal Fire Smash after you was before that,” Jane snapped. She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. She remembered the obvious affection in Thor’s voice as he spoke of his family, that night on the roof. She remembered the heartbreak in his voice when he told her that his brother had told him he was the cause of their father’s death, and the betrayal that shone in his eyes when Sif told him that his father was still alive. She’d never even met the guy, but she was set to dislike Loki. But, it was obvious that Thor didn’t.

He wasn’t crying on the other end of the phone, and his voice held steady, but she thought she could hear the pain and exhaustion in it. “Are you okay?” she asked softly.

_”My injuries are negligible.”_

“That’s not what I meant. You had to fight your brother again. Are you…I mean, that can’t have been pleasant. Are you doing okay?”

 _”You are the first to acknowledge this,”_ Thor murmured at the other end of the phone, and Jane was filled with sudden rage at whoever it was he’d been fighting alongside. Who the hell sent brother to fight brother and didn’t consider that this would be painful for him?

 _”I find myself baffled,”_ Thor said. _”I cannot fathom what has made him so bitter. He claims he was always in my shadow; I cannot see how that was. He was always the first person I sought out for anything, I can’t see…And even if his anger at me is justified, why would he seek to harm innocents? He’s so angry, and I wish I knew what I could do, but…”_ His voice trailed off. Jane’s heart was aching.

“Thor…I don’t know what I can tell you. I wish I was there to give you a hug, but I’m not, and…”

 _”Never fear, Jane. You need not concern yourself with my troubles.”_ Before she could protest that yes, she did, Thor barrelled ahead: _”Jane, I must go soon. Other matters demand my attention. But I need to tell you something first.”_

“Yes?”

_”The wreckage of the bridge is disturbing the space between the realms. Even if we were to repair it, and with the Tesseract we can, we would need a fixed point to make contact. From there we can move on, but right now we need this point – and your work is providing us with one. Now, Heimdall has been watching you…”_

“Wait. What?”

_”Never fear, he only watches you in your workspace, and he is most discreet. However, he needs you to perform certain actions.”_

Jane shook her head and refused to be freaked out. “Name them.”

_”You must leave the books with your equations open, so he may read them. And occasionally, you must speak your thoughts out loud, so he may hear them. He cannot communicate with you – yet – but he can see what you do, and convey it to our seidcrafters and artificers, so they may adjust accordingly.”_

Jane nodded, even though he couldn’t see it. “Sure. I can do that.”

There was a pause – Jane thought she could hear him say “I need but a moment more” in the background – before Thor spoke to her again. _“I must go. I must help prepare the Tesseract. And I have requested that Erik Selvig be allowed to contact you – he is here, but frail at the moment. Jane…I so wish I could see your sweet face again…”_

“No worries,” Jane replied. “I’ll have this bridge fixed in a jiffy, and then you’d better be ready to welcome me to Asgard.”

_”I know not what this “jiffy” is, but I shall await you. Fare thee well, then, Jane Foster.”_

“Uh, yeah. You too. Say hi to Erik for me. Tell him I’m kinda upset that he hasn’t been returning my calls.” She kept hold of the phone for a long time after disconnecting, before letting it fall from her fingers as she sank to the floor and laughed helplessly. 

“I’m going to be talking out loud so the magical god alien in another dimension can hear me. My mad scientist credentials are sky-rocketing.”

*****  
Thor had said goodbye to his fighting companions, and to Erik, who was now in possession of his own mind again, though still shaken. He had looked demandingly at Loki until Loki grabbed the other end of the container for the Tesseract and the two of them were off in a shower of light reminiscent of the Bifrost.

They were transported directly to a small, private room off the side of the throne room, where Thor put the Tesseract in a specially prepared container which promptly sunk into the floor, taking the powerful object directly to the treasure room.

Thor hesitated a second, not relishing the poisonous words that would surely follow, but reached out anyway to remove the gag from his brother’s face. Loki glared at him the entire time.

“So,” Loki said once the gag was gone, “I am allowed to speak after all?”

“It was simply to restrict you from interfering with the path the Tesseract would bring us on,” Thor replied. “I said you would be given a chance to explain.”

“And I am certain everyone will care to listen,” Loki snapped. “Yes, though they never have before.”

“Then now is your chance,” Thor replied, fighting to keep his tone even. “And before the trial as well. Mother and Father will wish to know…”

“I have nothing to say to them,” Loki interrupted. “They kept silent for so long, now it’s time for me to do the same.”

“They grieved for you,” Thor responded quietly. “You will gain nothing and lose much from refusing to speak with them. Brother…”

“I am not your brother,” Loki snapped. “Will that ever penetrate your thick skull? There is no kinship between us, nor any affection – and the same is true for those people you call parents.”

Thor looked up sharply in alarm. “Loki, cease.”

“Nay, I shan’t. You said I would be allowed to speak. So be it, then. Hear this, Odinsson: I reject you, and this place and this family. I have no love for you or them, and so it will remain, until Ragnarok itself.”

“I see,” said Frigga cooly from behind him, and Loki froze. He cast an accusing glance at Thor, who gave him a helpless I-tried-to-stop-you look. 

“Then you listen, child of mine,” Frigga continued. “You may reject me, but I shan’t reject you. Even as you claim to hold no love for me, so I shall keep on loving you. You claim that I am not your mother, but you shall always be my son. And _that_ , Loki Odinsson, is a truth that will remain until Ragnarok.”

She spun on her heel and walked out of the room, anger visible in every movement. Thor looked helplessly at Loki, and then at Odin, who was standing quietly in the doorway where Frigga had left.

“Much needs to be done,” Odin said finally. “Many wrongs must be righted. For now, let me simply leave you with this: I am very pleased to see you both alive.” He reached out one hand, as if to touch Loki’s face, but stopped before he got there. 

“Loki, come,” he said finally. “A room has been prepared for you. You’ll not be able to leave it until the time is come for you to do so.” The words hung heavy in the air, like a pronouncement, almost tangible. Loki began walking, almost as in a trance. The fight had gone out of him the moment Frigga spoke her angry words. 

Thor watched him go, watched the guards who had followed Odin in steer him gently in the right direction. He looked then at his father.

Odin reached out again, and this time he made contact with the son he was moving to touch. His hand landed heavily on Thor’s shoulder. “Come, Thor,” he said. “This has been a trying time for you. Leave the worries to us, now; you may take your rest.”

“I fear I shan’t be able to,” Thor replied with a heavy sigh.

Odin smiled and tilted his hand enough to grip his neck. “Nay, you shall. Go now.”

Thor barely made it to the resting chambers he kept in his mother’s hall before collapsing, still in armour.


	2. Pushing boundaries

The Northern Lights Institute, connected to the University of Tromsø, wasn’t the first place Jane would have looked for traces of interdimensional travel. However, given that this travel was facilitated by something called a “Rainbow Bridge”, she was ready to expand her understanding of things even she had thought to be science fiction to include actual, real natural phenomena.

“The Auroras, Borealis and Australis both, are created when space particles interact with the magnetic fields of the Earth’s two poles,” Jane explained to Darcy over Skype. “The Sami – that’s the indigenous people of Northern Scandinavia - used to believe that the northern lights were curtains between one world and the next. The ancient Norsemen believed that rainbows were the bridge to the world of the gods. Sky phenomena with lots of color. And we met a guy who came from space and used to be worshiped as one of those gods.” 

_”So you’re looking for a connection?”_ Darcy asked. _“It’s pretty far from northern lights to rainbows, and the Sami and the Vikings aren’t even the same people.”_

“I looked at the readings they have here. When all that crap was going down in Puente Antiguo, with bridges being opened willy-nilly, they had a lot more activity up here.” Jane frowned. “And don’t call them Vikings. The people were Norsemen. Viking is a profession.”

_”A Viking is a pirate,”_ Darcy pointed out.

“I didn’t say it was an honorable profession, just that it’s a profession and not the name of the people. And they don’t exist anymore, anyway – they’re all Swedes and Danes and Norwegians and Icelanders now.”

_”I’m aware. I’m the one with a degree in political science, here – history is closer to my field than yours.”_ Darcy’s eyeroll was visible even through her crappy web cam. 

Jane stopped cold. “You’ve finished your degree? Why didn’t you tell me? I was supposed to come to your graduation!”

_”Right, because I was going to let you abandon your work to come all the way from Norway. It’s just my Masters, it’s not like it’s a PhD.”_

“Don’t say that,” Jane complained. “Getting your Masters is a huge accomplishment. Oh, Darce, I’m so proud of you!” In lieu of her friend, Jane hugged the computer screen.

Darcy smiled. _”Yeah, I know. I just didn’t want you to feel guilty. It’s fine, you don’t have to, I didn’t even tell you when I finished. And hey, now I have the time to come visit you!”_

Jane stared at her. “You’d do that?”

_”Hey, my mom promised me a graduation trip. I just think she thought I’d go someplace warmer.”_

“How about I tell SHIELD that you’re vital for my work, and they should pay the trip?” Jane suggested. “That way, you can use the money your mom would have used on actually doing stuff here. It’s really ridiculously expensive here.”

_”Yeah, no offense, Jane, but I’d rather have as little to do with SHIELD as I can. It’s okay, I’ve saved up some for my graduation trip. Hey, I’ll see you soon, then!”_

“When you get here, I’ll have perfected my interdimensional phone,” Jane promised, and disconnected absentmindedly – ignoring Darcy’s _”Wait, what?”_

***********  
Heimdall was watching. He saw the construction Jane was building, and he saw the schematics she drew and explained out loud, so he could hear her. He copied them as well as he could and brought the explanation on. Craftspeople from Asgard and dwarves whose stay had been unexpectedly prolonged when they’d been cut off from Nidavellir when the bridge went down, listened and discussed and set to work, marvelling at the ideas that sprung forth from a mortal mind. Heimdall listened to them, and smiled.

He swept his gaze over all nine realms. Jotunheim remained largely broken, its people too dispirited by their king’s recent death to stir beyond apathy. The Fire Giants of Muspelheim were as they had always been, Nornheim also. The dwarves of Nidavellir laboured industriously, the elves of Alfheim remained haughty and ethereal and still somehow low, the dark elves of Svartalfheim largely the same as their lighter cousins yet somehow more skulking. Vanaheim looked the same as always to Heimdall’s gaze. Prince Balder was there as an ambassador, doing well. There was nothing demanding his attention - visually.

Heimdall closed his eyes and listened to murmurs.

********  
Thor was not murmuring. He was also not yelling, so all was not as bad as it could be.

“We have no acceptable options, Father,” he said as reasonably as he could. Part of him wanted to yell and punch furniture. Another part told him that his father would never listen to that, and he needed to keep a cool head.

“What you suggest is not an acceptable option”, Odin snapped. “Return the Cradle? Are you aware of what we went through to take it from them in the first place?”

“I am,” Thor replied. “But they have suffered great losses recently, and at our hands. If they are to rise again, they need a reason and a means. The Cradle would be both.”

“And if they were to rise again?” Odin asked. “You think them grown enough that they would not immediately turn their attention to the most conquerable world again? I’ll admit that the Midgardians have grown over the past thousand years, but it would still be them. I thought you fond of them.

“Or they would set their sights on us and revenge,” he continued. “There is already other trouble brewing. Heimdall reports murmurs of unrest from somewhere that remains hidden from his sight. We cannot afford our attention taken by Jotunheim now.”

“Much of their hostility was because Laufey kept it alive,” Thor replied. “If their new monarch is wiser, they will have a change of heart. Furthermore, with the Tesseract returned to us, we can alter the Cradle so it can only be used on Jotunheim. That way, they could use it for reconstruction and defence, but not offence. But we must make some reconciliatory gesture, Father, and it must be large, else we will never mend our broken relationship.”

Odin’s head swivelled to look at Frigga, sitting calmly at her loom.

“He asked if it were possible to use the Tesseract on the Cradle, and I told him the truth: yes, it is,” she replied calmly to her husband’s unspoken question. “He is seeking the knowledge he lacks from other sources, rather than going forth without knowledge. Surely this is not something you would discourage.”

Odin scowled at her, but remained silent.

“Father,” Thor said as imploringly as he could. “We cannot do nothing. If we are to forge better relations with all the realms, we have to make the first move. Jotunheim has been our greatest enemy for so long, it will mean all the more if we make our move of reconciliation towards them. But I am not fool enough to think that we can hand over the Cradle and all will be well. This is why precautions should be taken. However, we must do something if we are to not stagnate.

“I have listened to what Heimdall has had to say, as well. He has said that the Bifrost attack on Jotunheim burned through any defences that would hide parts of that world from his sight. Thus, we can conclude that whoever it is who plans to oppose us, they have not come from Jotunheim. Surely, it then makes sense to forge alliances there?”

Odin regarded him for a long while. His eldest son didn’t outwardly look much different from how he’d looked a little over a year before. There was a shadow of grief in his eyes and his shoulders were held a little less arrogantly and a little more as though they had settled under a great weight, but otherwise he was the same – large and powerful with honest, trusting eyes. Odin closed his eye and stretched out the perception of his mind. This, this was how Thor had changed. That seed of responsibility that had always been in him had been allowed to grow. The arrogance, while still there, had bowed to purpose, where before purpose had twisted under arrogance.

He had grown up a great deal.

“I see the wisdom in your words, my son,” Odin said, and ignored the way Thor blinked in momentary shock. “However, as long as the Bifrost is out of commission and the pathways between worlds remain unstable, it is nothing more than an exercise in logic. We cannot return the Cradle to Jotunheim, simply because we cannot leave here with it. I dared send you and Mjolnir to Midgard because you are closely linked, and so self-contained that the dark energy would not tear you to pieces or release all your power in the starways. I dare not do the same with the Cradle. Were its power to spill over, disaster would strike.”

Thor bowed his head. “I understand that, Father. But the reconstruction of the Bifrost may be closer than you may think.”

Frigga looked away from her loom for the first time, regarding her son with interest. “Oh, is your little mortal making headway?”

“Jane,” Thor corrected. “Her name is Jane, and her title is Doctor. And yes, she is. When last I checked on her progress, she believed that soon, she may have a device that would communicate with us across the spaceways. Once that is done, we would be that much closer to sending more solid matter through the passageway.” 

“She is very clever, your little Doctor Jane,” Frigga said warmly, and Thor ducked his head and smiled with pleasure.

Odin swallowed his sigh of concern.

**********  
It was the Blue Hour. That part of the day where, during winter here north of the Polar Circle, the sun was the closest to rising. The light of it was painting the sky a truly spectacular blue, and yet the sun never quite rose.

The locals were only halfway joking when they said that this hour was magical.

What better time to contact the place where magic and science were one and the same?

Jane took a deep breath and pressed the button on the remote to turn on her video camera, which was posed to capture the strange-looking contraption on her balcony. She pulled her woollen cap further down and rubbed her mitten-covered hands against each other, before speaking.

“November 26th, at 1300 hours. Testing progress: All the latest smaller tests have proven successful. As such, I have decided to attempt making full contact with Asgard. Primary observer: Foster, Doctor Jane. Also, presumably, Heimdall, Asgard’s guard and scout. Equipment operator: Foster, Doctor Jane.”

She pressed ‘pause’ on the remote, and observed out loud: “Darcy Lewis hasn’t shown up yet. Attempts to reach her have proven unsuccessful, unlike attempts to reach SHIELD to yell at them. One Sitwell promised to look into it. I’m sceptical. Heimdall, if you looked for her like I asked you to, I hope that you can tell me she’s fine.”

She resumed the recording, observing out loud every move. The buttons and levers were deliberately large – she’d been thinking of Thor’s large hands when she build the device, but it proved useful during cold Norwegian nights when she had to keep her hands covered as well.

Heart in her throat and excitement fluttering in her belly, she pulled the final lever.

For a minute or two, nothing happened. Then a scraping sound began emitting from the device.

“Hello?” Jane asked nervously. “Can anyone hear me? Heimdall?”

_“Not quite”_ , came an amused voice, distorted by the connection but still heartbreakingly familiar. _“He is here should you wish to speak to him, though.”_

Jane let out her breath, tension she hadn’t been aware she was carrying suddenly melting from her body, leaving her with an unspeakable sense of relief.

“Hello, Thor.”


	3. Progress and regression

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The grammatical mistakes in the cab driver's speech are entirely deliberate.

Darcy Lewis was fuming. This had taken her entirely too long.

First, she’d had to ask for an extension on handing in her MA thesis, instead of handing it in in May like she’d wanted to. The reason, of course, had been being understandably distracted after finding out that they actually weren’t alone in the universe and struggling hard and long to find out how she could possibly incorporate this without losing her original thesis but not sounding like a crackpot and not breaking confidentiality, but she couldn’t tell the faculty that, because as previously ranted about, that was classified.

It was only right and proper that SHIELD had come and said something very hush hush so she got her extension. 

And then a hole had opened over New York, and it turned out she hadn’t needed to keep mum anyway.

She’d contacted Jane in early September, after finally having been handed her diploma. She’d been all set to go to Norway.

And then an article she’d written about how international politics now had to become interdimensional politics and how to deal with that, which she’d written in frustration over never being allowed to say that publically, had somehow been submitted and published in American Political Science Review. Darcy hadn’t even known it was possible for it to be submitted without her knowledge, and she definitely didn’t know who’d done it.

Next thing she knew, one Agent Blake and one Agent Claire were at her door, whisking her away to a Diplomat Training Course thing.

The result being, it was the middle of November before she could finally plant her butt in a seat and fly for eight hours straight and then two hours layover and yet another hour to get to Tromsø.

And despite it only being 6pm, it was completely dark when she arrived.

“Stupid SHIELD, stupid Jane, stupid Norway” Darcy muttered as her suitcases were loaded into a cab.

The cab driver gave her an amused smile. 

“Miss? Look there”, he said, pointing.

Darcy looked up from where she had been rubbing her fingers together and watched as the Aurora glimmered faintly on the horizon.

After three minutes of speechless staring, the driver nudged her, and Darcy pulled herself out of her trance to get moving and get into the cap. Immediately, her glasses were fogged over as they made contact with the warm air.

Darcy gave the driver Jane’s address, buckled in and pulled off her glasses to wipe them. Replacing them on her nose, she sat back to look out the window at the darkness broken by an increasingly more spectacular lightshow. 

“It have been even more of them lately,” the driver said conversationally. “You are lucky. We get them often, but this is unnormal.” 

Darcy made a non-committal sound and wondered how far Jane had progressed with her Asgard Calling device. 

******  
Both Jane and Darcy were aware that they sounded like overly excited seven-year-olds when they were finally reunited. Neither of them cared.

Once the squeals and joyful clapping and hugging at random intervals had, if not ended then at least petered out, Jane dragged Darcy over to her interdimentional communications device (Darcy vowed to find a better name for it) to brag, and then they had to try it out. It wasn’t one of the set times Jane and Thor had agreed on in order to actually reach each other, so they didn’t get Thor. They did, however, get hold of Heimdall.

_“Darcy Lewis”,_ he said in his deep voice that somehow seemed bigger than it should have been. _“I searched for you on Doctor Jane’s request.”_

“Doctor Jane?” Darcy muttered.

“It’s what they call me,” Jane muttered back. “They don’t really use last names – notice how he says your entire name like it can’t be divided? – and I think Thor insisted that they use my title. It’s better than all those people who insist on calling me miss Foster.”

“Much better,” Darcy agreed, before turning back to the device. “So, uh, you didn’t find me?”

_“Of course I found you,”_ Heimdall replied, sounding...yes, actually, he sounded insulted. Darcy smothered a giggle. 

_“I found you, yes, but you were not in any danger that I could discern. Forgive me, but it is also in our interest that SHIELD think you the right person to open diplomatic relations with us.”_

“Wait, what?” Jane interrupted, and Darcy waved a hand to shush her, inwardly gleeful that she got to do that to Jane for once. 

“Yeah, no idea how that happened. There was this paper, but I didn’t even submit it, but they said that since I’d broken confidentiality I had to be their ambassador to you guys when Jane finally got this bridge open.” Darcy had already decided that there was no point in beating around the bush with Heimdall – he probably knew everything anyway.

She was, however, surprised by what he said next.

_“Hmmm, yes. I overheard one of them discussing that deception,”_ Heimdall mused.

Darcy blinked, shook her head, and blinked again. “Wait. What deception? Are you telling me...”

“Did THEY submit that paper!?” Jane shrieked in outrage.

_“It would appear so,”_ Heimdall murmured, as Darcy tried to clear her ears after Jane had shrieked into them. _“My gaze was trained elsewhere when it happened, though their conversation would indicate it.”_

“Why, those conniving, back-stabbing nasty manipulative...” Jane growled. “Heimdall! Tell Thor that when he gets back here, he’d better make everyone involved a personal little raincloud to follow them around for the next five years!”

_“I shall convey your demand to him,”_ Heimdall replied.

Darcy blinked – both at the idea of Jane giving orders to Thor, and...”He can do that? With the rainclouds?”

_“Indeed, I believe it would be fairly easy for him,”_ Heimdall replied. “Why?”

“Nothing,” Darcy replied. Jane looked at her funnily, and Darcy repressed a shudder.

Lightning was one thing, but controlling the rain - and everything that implied - was actually scary.

*****  
They decided to do a test of the device – so far, only words had been sent across, but with the fixed point in place and the Tesseract working on the bridge, Jane and Heimdall decided that it was time to try sending something solid.

Obviously, they couldn’t send anything living yet. So Jane mournfully picked up the bag of oranges she’d bought earlier that day and put it into place.

“You could just send one,” Darcy told her.

Jane looked offended. “Well, if I’m going to send oranges, it had better be enough that they can have a proper taste. I’m not skimpy, Darcy, I just wanted an orange.”

Darcy rolled her eyes, removed one orange from the bag, and began peeling it as Jane set the dials and calibrated the instruments and said “Ready!” in a loud, clear voice and pulled a lever.

The oranges disappeared.

And then they showed up in Asgard.

Jane took it like a true professional – she only jumped around and squealed in delight for a couple of minutes.

*****  
The Queen of Asgard swept through the halls. 

Her golden hair was piled artfully on her head, her golden gown fell elegantly from her shoulders, and she carried two pieces of strange, almost-golden fruit in her hand.

She nodded at the guard at the door and stepped inside, waiting for the man in the glass cage to acknowledge her.

He looked up. “Queen Frigga.”

Frigga refused to flinch. “Loki. How are you, my son?”

Loki laughed hollowly and kicked away the book he had let drop to his feet. “Lethargic, from having my movements restricted.”

“I could speak to the guards, see if you could be let out into the gardens for some exercise.”

“Let myself be walked like a hound? I think not.”

Frigga sighed and moved closer to the cage. She pushed resolutely through without pause, and moved to stand directly in front of Loki.

Loki smirked. “You dare face me with no barrier between us?”

Frigga simply looked at him, and Loki’s smirk fell away. “I will find out what the requirement is for entering and leaving this cage is, you know.”

“I sincerely hope so,” Frigga replied honestly. “But for my entering and leaving, I can tell you without any further ado. Anyone who means you no harm may enter. It is no more complicated than that.”

Loki clamped down resolutely to keep from fidgeting. “What have you there?” he asked, pointing at the fruit in her hand. “Those are not apples.”

“Doctor Jane, Thor’s little mortal friend, sent them,” Frigga replied. “She called them ‘oranges’. One removes the outer skin and eats the flesh. I thought you would like to try. They taste like sunlight.”

“She...sent them,” Loki replied incredulously. “Then the Bifrost is operational again?”

“Not quite yet, though it’s getting close. She’s very clever.”

“For a mortal.”

“For anyone,” Frigga corrected. Loki forcibly turned his pout into a sneer.

“I suppose once she gets here, Thor will have even more reasons to put off his visit to me,” he spat.

“Do you miss him?” Frigga asked

“No more than I miss a burr in my boot.”

“I shall tell him to pay you a visit,” Frigga said decisively. “Here, keep the oranges. Remember to remove the outer skin.”

She reached out to cup his neck and pulled his head down so she could kiss his forehead. Loki tried to squirm away, but he didn’t try very hard, and they both knew it.

Frigga smiled at him and left the cage.

Loki waited until she had left the room before he bit into the orange. He spat out the bitter piece of peel he’d got into his mouth, rolled his eyes, and peeled it before taking another bite. Juice trickled down his wrist as he sat back with a satisfied sigh.

It did taste like sunlight.

*****  
Thor knew that Mother had been to see Loki. He also knew, as she walked towards him with determined steps, that she had come to scold him because he had not.

Attack was the best defense, he decided. 

“I know what you intend to say, Mother. I have been too busy to spare the time to see him. Surely it is not wrong to take an interest in matters of State?”

“Even your father managed to take some time for you two when you were young,” Frigga responded. “Surely you are not worse than that?”

Attack was the best defense...except when one was speaking with one’s mother.

“Mother,” Thor said as imploringly as he could, “I really have been busy. And all words between us seem spent anyway. He will not listen to reason, and I will not listen to poison. Why waste time and energy on what is futile anyway?”

Frigga looked at him sadly. “Lying suits you ill, my son.”

Thor felt a stab of emotion in his gut. “I’m not lying.”

Frigga shook her head. “Yes, you are. You simply have not realised it.”

*****  
“She accused me of lying without knowing it,” Thor fumed later that evening. He had accepted an invitation to Volstagg’s home, as had Sif, Hogun and Fandral, and had done his share of dining and clearing the table and telling stories to the children, and was now sitting with little Gunnhild, Volstagg and Gudrun’s youngest, slumbering in his lap. 

“Ridiculous. Would I not know if I were lying? I am not one to tell lies either way.”

Sif and the Warriors Three exchanged glances. Normally, they would have agreed, but…

“She specified what you were supposed to be lying about?” Fandral asked carefully.

“My reasons for spending my time as I have,” Thor replied. “She is as impossible as Father. One would think they would approve of my pursuing endeavours that have a chance of bearing fruit, but no. Father has been seeming put out at my interest in the Bifrost repairs, and Mother wishes for me to argue with someone whose bull-headedness rivals trolls.”

“Well, he is your brother,” Sif remarked. “Stubbornness is not an unknown trait in your family.” When Thor glared at her, she smiled unrepentantly at him.

Volstagg reached out to take Gunnhild from Thor. He gave his sleeping daughter a peck on the crown of her head before handing her to his wife to put to bed. Deprived of distractions, he tried to break the uneasy tension that had fallen.

“Ah…you told some new stories today,” he said, and winced inwardly as they were propelled back to the Bilchsteim in the room.

“I thought they might like some new ones,” Thor replied, challenging them all to continue the line of conversation.

They wouldn’t have been his best friends had they been that easily silenced.

“Yes. There was no Loki in these stories,” Sif said, cutting to the heart of the issue.

“If you miss him so much, why not go see him?” Thor replied.

“I have,” Sif said blandly. “We glared at one another for an hour or so before I left. Loki and I have never much liked one another. You know this.” She toyed with a strand of her hair, realised what she was doing and stopped.

“I have been as well,” Fandral cut in. “I spoke of unimportant gossip. That he let me lead me to believe that he wishes for more company.”

“I spoke of the children,” Volstagg volunteered. “He actually paid some attention.”

“I brought him a book,” Hogun said.

“So you’d not have to actually say anything?” asked Fandral.

“Yes.”

Silence descended after that.

Finally, Sif spoke again, more gently this time. “Thor…you are the only one of us who’s not been to see him, and you love him more dearly than any of us. Have you not considered that perhaps there is deeper reason for this, than that you see nothing constructive coming of it?”

Thor rose, carefully controlled rage making his muscles quiver.

“No,” he spat. “I’ve not considered that.” With that, he left.


	4. Reaquaintance, part two

Thor was not accustomed to backing down from a challenge.

He was aware that this could occasionally prove a liability, and also that this made him fairly predictable in certain respects. He maintained that it would only make it all the more unpredictable when he eventually did back down, but as of yet, he’d not encountered a situation where he could put this to the test. Some challenges were not worth taking, simply not being challenging enough, and some turned out to be different types of challenges than he’d expected – he remembered falling to his knees in the mud in front of an unmovable Mjolnir – but he’d yet to encounter a challenge worth taking that he’d not taken.

And so, he found himself in front of Loki’s cell.

“Brother,” he said, and the word tasted like ash on his tongue. 

“Odinsson,” Loki replied, and it seemed like he could taste the same ash.

“How fares your incarceration?”

“It’s dreadfully dull,” Loki replied. “Dull enough that even your boorish countenance is a welcome respite.”

“I learned to ignore your insults long ago,” Thor said. “Recent events would indicate that you have not. What horrible deed did I commit that is playing through your mind today, that my mere presence brings forth such venom? Is it because I broke your rocking horse when we were children? I built you a new one once I had the skill.”

“You gifted me with a rocking horse long after I had outgrown such things,” Loki snapped. “Others thought you were calling me infantile.”

“They did not,” Thor protested. 

“They did!”

“Am I now to say ‘did not’? This leads us nowhere.”

“You are right,” Loki said, calming down again. “Nowhere. Unfortunately, that appears to be exactly where I am going. You insist on keeping me confined for petty crimes…”

“Murdering innocents,” Thor cut in.

“Mortals and monsters,” Loki snapped. “What is the severity of that? One has such short lives ending them prematurely hardly makes a difference, the other deserves no better than death.”

“Even if genocide were not wrong,” Thor snarled, “destroying all of Jotunheim would have created severe imbalance in all of Yggdrasil’s branches. Even now, with the attempt having been aborted, the effects have been colder winters here. Were you thinking at all?”

“That is rich, coming from you,” Loki replied.

“Perhaps,” Thor said. “But I’ve never claimed to be clever.”

“No, you have not,” Loki said. “But you seem to pretend to wisdom, now. It will never be more than pretension, while you are so easily provoked.”

“Claiming this was deliberate now?” Thor raised an eyebrow. “Careful, brother. One could almost believe you cared.”

“Only if one were a delusional fool,” Loki snapped.

“Well. I would never be that delusional,” Thor replied, turning to stride angrily from the room.

*****  
Thor normally was quick to anger, but also quick to calm down. That the anger lingered this time disturbed him.

 _Stop_ , he told himself. _Even if he is being childish, there’s no reason for you to be equally childish. You have forgiven him. Why are you still so angry?_

The question troubled him enough that he didn’t realise where his feet had taken him before he found himself on the training grounds. One troop of recruits were sparring there, under General Tyr’s watchful eye.

“Is it not a little beneath your position to train the troops?” Thor asked. “One would think you had more important matters to attend to.”

Tyr turned to him and grinned, and reached out to grip Thor’s forearm in a warrior’s greeting.

“Lord Thor. No, I fear that with the Bifrost down, I have nothing better to do – and I always like to have the chance to survey the recruits personally. One day, they will be in my army, and I need to know they are properly trained. What of you? Have you any other, more important tasks?”

“I wish I did,” Thor replied with a sigh. “There is knowledge to be gathered, but that is beyond my ken. There are diplomatic meetings to be had, but we cannot reach the same place as those we must have them with. There is treachery afoot, but we know not from where. And I cannot help there either. I could cause a lightning storm on all nine realms to flush out the traitors, but I doubt they would surrender to stop it, and the ones who would suffer the most are the innocents. There is so much to be done, but I cannot do any of it!”

Tyr gave him an alarmed look and cast his eyes briefly to the sky, where thunderclouds were gathering. Thor followed his gaze, grimaced, and waved his hand to disperse the clouds. 

“My apologies,” he muttered.

“That’s quite all right,” Tyr replied. “So, no lead on the traitors?”

Thor laughed bitterly. “We are not even certain what form of treachery it is. We only know that someone, somewhere, is causing unrest, and attempting to rise against us.” He turned to Tyr. “All the better that you sent that contingent of soldiers to Balder on Vanaheim when we thought there might be war against Jotunheim. If someone moves against him, he’ll be guarded.”

“Do you think they will?”

“I know not, but he is the only member of the family not on Asgard at the moment. That leaves him vulnerable.” Thor sighed. “And, perhaps, able to _do_ something, unlike me.”

Tyr clapped his shoulder. “Well, I have something you could do while you wait. What think you of this year’s crop?” He swept his one hand to take in the recruits on the training field.

Thor regarded them critically. “There is skill, there, but they seem overconfident. Some of what they are doing right now is pure showmanship. That trio in particular” – he pointed – “is going to have a rough awakening once they see real battle.”

“All of them master swordsmen of their little village once all others with warrior potential had left,” Tyr said. “And yes, they seem overconfident. Much like someone else I remember.”

Thor grinned. “I never quite outgrew that.”

“But you learned to learn rather than think you knew all,” Tyr replied. “What say you to teaching them how long they have left to go?”

“As you showed me?” Thor said, already loosening the fasteners on his cape and unhooking Mjolnir from his belt. “Certainly. I owe you a return favour.”

*****  
The fight was over all too soon.

The three cockiest of the new recruits, as well as four others, lay panting and aching in the dust. Thor still stood, barely even winded.

“You show some promise,” he said. “You don’t give up, and you have some technical skills. But none of you try to fight together, and so get in one another’s way rather than form a cohesive unit that could take me down. Furthermore, none of you were expecting a real challenge, and so it took far too long for you to start fighting in earnest. But you could improve, and easily.”

There was a weak chorus of “yes, m’lord”. Thor grinned at them and held out his hand, summoning Mjolnir, which flew to him along with the cape he’d hung over her. In a much more cheerful mood, he donned his cape again, refastened Mjolnir to his belt, nodded to the assembly and walked off, whistling tunelessly.

“He is…very strong,” one of the recruits said. 

“Certainly he is. I would doubt your chances even if you were to fight cohesively as a unit,” Tyr replied. “And this was unarmed, without using his weather magic. Imagine what it would have been like, had he brought the hammer into play.”

“Is that…could we become that strong?”

“I doubt it. He’s inherited his power from his father, and his father’s father, Bor, before that. Power runs in that family – even the queen and Loki have it, though more subtly. None of you would stand a chance alone, or in a group of seven – though with enough practice, a larger unit could bring them down.”

The recruits exchanged nervous glances.

“Then…when the royals have such power, why are we needed?”

Tyr shrugged. “Well. They cannot be everywhere at once.” He walked off, leaving the recruits to whisper among each other.

*****  
Thor, who indeed couldn’t be everywhere at once, chose to spend a substantial amount of his time at the Observatory, watching the reconstruction of the Bifrost Bridge. Partly, this was because he was genuinely anxious to see it completed so his people could again take part in the worlds beyond their own. Partly, it was because he had a chance, here, to hear Jane on her device.

Jane had mostly done her part, now. The rest of the construction was up to the Asgardians and their allies who had been stranded and were as anxious as Thor was to see the construction finished, though for their part, they wished to return home rather than leave it. When Jane called, it was mostly to speak with Heimdall on what he could see of space.

Thor was often content simply to listen to them. He would make his presence known, and then sit back and listen. He rarely had anything to contribute, but he took in what they said, and thought about it. Much more than his astronomy lessons as a youth, this served to expand his knowledge of the stars and the relation between them. 

It also left him to think of other, related things. The pathways between worlds had been disturbed by the collapse of the bridge, but from what Jane said, he thought maybe they were possible to traverse. Perhaps especially between worlds more distant from Asgard. 

And, because Thor had been thinking much about politics and possible treachery lately, this made him wonder if whatever plot had been hatched by persons unknown might not be more complicated than they knew.

 _“You sound a bit like you’re going stir-crazy, big guy,”_ said Darcy Lewis over Jane’s communication device. Thor had been disappointed to hear that Jane was not there to talk to today – she had been giving a heavily edited guest lecture at the University about her latest work. Darcy had cheerfully volunteered to chat with him instead, and Thor, not wanting to be rude, had accepted. Besides, he rather liked Darcy, and he welcomed the distraction. It was simply not the distraction he had been hoping for.

The expression “stir-crazy” was unknown to him, but he took her meaning. “I suppose I am. I wish to be doing something, not simply sit and wait. It is galling, truly, to know there are things that must be done and not being able to do them.”

 _“I guess you could take the opportunity to put your own house in order,”_ Darcy said.

Thor frowned. “My house is in order. My housekeeper sees to that.”

He could hear Darcy’s giggle through the machine. It made him grin. _“No, see, that means that you have to fix stuff closer to home. Ummm… like, your relationship with people, your feelings about yourself, that type of stuff. Have you been on any charm-the-people rounds yet? You guys are basically an autocracy, so you don’t have to worry about re-elections like here, but you have to worry about rebellion, right? Are all your people – the people of Asgard, I mean – content with your rule? How would you know?”_

Thor frowned. Her words raised an uncomfortable thought in him, though probably not one she had intended. He shook his head to clear it, so he could answer her question. “Normally, they would bring their trouble to their guildmaster, who would bring it on to the Council. In addition to this, anyone can raise a complaint at the Allthing, though we’ve not had one in some time.”

“God, _I wanna do a paper on you guys,”_ Darcy muttered. _“I can see it now. ‘Democracy in Autocracy – How to Hear the People’s Voice in a Functional Monarchy’. I could compare you to functional monarchies here on Earth. It’d be huge.”_

“You are welcome to,” Thor replied. “Now…how looks the Bifrost situation from your end, as you see it?”

_“Honestly? It looks like we’re just sitting around. We can’t get up the energy to do anything – we’d black out the entire power grid – so we’re basically just waiting for you. Jane refuses to ask for help from SHIELD, which I agree with, so we’re stuck waiting. I think we’re going a bit stir-crazy, too, though I’ve been skiing more in two months than I’ve done in my entire life before. People are ski-crazy here.”_

“They have been for as long as I remember,” Thor replied. “Power. This is what’s needed.”

_“Yeah, like electricity. You should be here, you could probably power the thing – ‘cause lightning is basically electricity, see?”_

“I do see,” Thor replied, wondering. 

He’d been able to extend Allspeak to Jane through an electrical device. Jane had used something running on electricity to send a bag of strange fruit across dimensions.

The pathways between worlds were still unstable, but if one were to travel fast enough, would it be possible to use them?

Fast as, say, lightning?


	5. Easing tensions

Just as Thor was unaccustomed to backing down from a challenge, he was unaccustomed to letting go once he had grabbed hold of something. And so, he found himself visiting Loki more and more often, and more often than not leaving in anger or frustration. The only times he did not, it was because they had sat the whole time in silence. 

He pondered and ruminated and kept going over everything that he could imagine had led to their current situation, but every time he tried to raise the subject to Loki, he was shut down. 

Sif found him sitting on the highest balcony of his house, brooding.

“You tend to seek high places when your mood is poor,” she said as she sat down next to him.

“You must take part blame for my mood,” he replied. “You encouraged me to visit Loki.”

“I did not,” she replied calmly, and held up a palm to stave off his protest. “I told you to examine your reasons for not having been to visit. The two are not the same.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” Thor asked, sounding so...broken that Sif’s heart ached. 

“You could consider thinking of yourself,” she replied. “I know you are trying to not be selfish, but you are going too far in the other direction. Please...you are wearing yourself thin. When was the last time you had a full night’s sleep?”

“A month or so before the failed coronation, I think,” Thor replied, giving her a sheepish smile.

Sif shook her head. “Fool. Go sleep. I shall keep watch.”

“You need not...” Thor began to protest.

“I know,” Sif interrupted. “I shall still keep watch. Sleep.”

Thor yawned. “As you command, Lady.”

*****  
As one Odinson collapsed into shallow sleep, another sat wide awake in his cell. Loki’s sleep pattern had been disturbed enough due to not having a daily rhythm anymore, that nightfall didn’t mean much to him.

Why Odin was still awake was another question, although some of his subjects whispered that the Allfather never slept outside the Odinsleep.

“Hello, Allfather,” Loki said. “I do hope you have more staying power than your eldest son, or this visit will be short.”

“You have been doing your best to drive him away,” Odin observed. “You ought not be so surprised when you succeed.”

“Perhaps I shall succeed in driving him away permanently,” Loki muttered.

“Perhaps. Though he’d regret it soon enough.”

“And you? Have you any regrets concerning me?”

“Some,” Odin replied. “Though not the ones I imagine you think I have.”

“I you are only here to be cryptic, you may as well leave.”

“Recently, I’ve thought that perhaps I should have told you of your origins sooner.”

Loki stared at him, mute with shock. 

Odin raised an eyebrow. “Would you still prefer me to leave?”

“No,” Loki forced out through a suddenly parched throat. “Please. Continue.” His voice gained a little strength. “Why didn’t you?”

“There are many reasons,” Odin replied. “First, it was too soon after the war. Tensions were running too high. Later, you seemed to have a hard enough time as it was. Again, later, the moment was never right. I struggled with thinking of a way to tell my child that his birth parents had left him to die, rather than realising that I should have emphasized how welcome you were with us. And at some point, perhaps I simply forgot.”

“Forgot.”

Odin smiled ruefully. “Yes. Regardless of what you may believe, I’ve not woken up every morning, thinking that today is yet another day when I’ll keep the truth from Loki. You were simply mine. I had plans for you, yes, but those were less important that you being part of my family, every bit as much as your brothers.”

“And those are your reasons.”

“I said I had reasons. I never said they were good.” Odin peered at Loki through his one good eye, but Loki’s face remained unreadable. “When we thought you dead, Thor told us of your nightmares.”

“And...what? Are you about to tell me that if you’d known, you’d have told me sooner?”

“Perhaps. I’ve told myself that, but I’ve also spent much time justifying taking my greatest enemy’s abandoned child and raising him as my own. I had hoped you’d been a better candidate for the throne than Thor. You and I have more in common, honestly, but you seem set on antagonizing everyone you meet, and that is not a quality that is fitting a king.” Odin sighed heavily. “Perhaps you’ve simply not found your place. ‘Tis hard, I know. There is little change here. Perhaps we live too long.” He paused for a moment, before looking sharply at Loki. “That is not an invitation to shorten any lifespans, by the way.”

“You think I need that clarification?” Odin simply looked at him. After a while, Loki chuckled helplessly. “I suppose I do need it.” He shook his head to clear it. Something caught his mind. “You said you’d spent much time justifying it. What was your real reason for taking me, if not to use me?”

“I told you this before. You were an innocent child. I found an abandoned infant, half dead of starvation and with no trace that anyone had been there for quite some time, and I simply could not leave him.”

“You could have given me to some Jotun.”

“I tried, actually. You would not cease screaming. In light of the revelation of your nightmares, it has led me to conclude that you remembered some traumatizing event.” He sighed. “At the time, I could not simply leave you crying.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Loki whispered.

Odin looked him straight in the eye. “Because I believe you might hate me. Some would even say it is deserved. I simply needed you to know it is one-sided.”

*****  
“We should try sending something bigger,” Darcy said.

“We’ve sent an entire armchair. Anything bigger, and we won’t be able to drag it to the zapper.” Jane nudged the backpack of books she was about to send with annoyance. She had hit her toe on it three times. She sighed and turned back to the controls on her device.

“We have to find a different name for it,” Darcy muttered. “Well, maybe something living. That rat went both there and back again and was just fine.” She had protested against the animal trial, and only Jane’s assurance that the animal had cancer and would die in a week anyway had assuaged her – and then she’d felt guilty, because of course Jane wouldn’t use an animal with a long life ahead of it.

“What do you suggest?” Jane asked as the device powered up – and then realisation struck her, and she raised her hands in protest as Darcy took a running start.

*****  
Golden spires, a many-coloured bridge, a pale red sky, and back to gold in the eyes of the giant of a man peering down at them.

Jane felt dizzy. She reached over and pinched Darcy.

“Ow!” 

“Just checking that this is all real.”

*****  
It had become the defining point of Thor’s meetings with his parents. They would speak of things that they could do nothing about, and part with nothing having been accomplished. The inactivity was beginning to rub against Thor’s nerves, and he was afraid that unless something happened soon, he would do something ill-advised.

“Lord Thor?” One of the heralds had opened the door, and the attention of all three people in the room turned to him. The herald swallowed a little at the focused royal attention, but barrelled ahead. “A visitor.”

He stepped back, and a petite form replaced his in the doorway – a small woman with dark, inquisitive eyes that were almost shining from the wonder she was observing.

Frigga turned entirely, surprise on her face. Odin stood from his throne. Thor breathed out a sigh of relief, tension seeping out of his spine.

“Jane.”


	6. And outsider's view of Asgard (also: Jane meets the parents)

«So where is your house?» Darcy asked as they exited the great hall. 

“A short way away from here, in a place called Trudvang,” Thor replied. “I’ll make preparations to shorten the travel, so you need not feel you’ve been cut off. It is simply more prudent to have you stay with me.”

Both Darcy and Jane looked at him sharply. “Prudent?” Jane asked. “You mean it might not be safe for us here?”

“You said something about it, but I didn’t think it was that bad,” Darcy added, frowning unhappily.

“I’ll be able to protect my guests,” Thor replied. “There is, however, no need to make it harder than it needs be. We are experiencing some sour moods, yes, but these need not touch you.” He turned, leading them on the way to the open fields next to the hall.

“There is one other concern,” he continued. “We’ve not had Midgardians here for as long as I remember. Jane will be respected for her work on the Bifrost, but there are still those who’ll think you have no place here. All places have their bad apples, and Asgard is no exception.” He stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled piercingly.

“So do you think we’ll have to ride, or do you think it’ll be all horse-drawn carriage and stuff right out of _Cinderella_?” Darcy whispered to Jane, who smothered a giggle as the sound of thundering hooves drew nearer. 

“I think...Actually, I’m gonna have to go with ‘none of the above’,” Jane replied as the beasts drew nearer. They were... _technically_ goats.

“Monster goats,” Jane said flatly.

Thor turned to her, looking bizarrely hurt. “They are not monsters,” he protested.

“Those things are five times as large as normal goats, and look like they eat raw flesh for dinner!” Darcy burst out.

“Well, yes, but why does that make them monstrous?”

Both Jane and Darcy opened their mouths to answer – and then closed them again. The goats – their horns actually higher than Thor’s shoulders – were rubbing against his outstretched palms, making a sound that was entirely too full of bass to be normal bleating, but still acting like pampered pets – and Thor seemed entirely thrilled to be near them.

“We’re not going to ride those, are we?” Jane asked weakly. 

“Certainly not. They pull my chariot.”

“Of course they do.”

“I rarely use it anymore,” Thor continued, either oblivious to the _what the hell_ expression on the women’s faces, or purposefully ignoring it. “I mostly ride or travel by hammer. They will be pleased to have something to do again. It has been too long since we flew together.”

Jane looked at Darcy. Darcy looked at Jane. In identical, incredulous voices they exclaimed, _“Flew!?”_

*****  
Of course the goats flew. Anything else would be entirely too normal.

Thor was steering them expertly, cloak billowing behind him, and Jane and Darcy clung to the sides of the chariot, both gawking. Asgard, which had seemed like little more than a tall city full of sweeping spires, turned out to be larger than expected as it unfolded underneath them – though Jane could swear that it actually grew in the unfolding. Space didn’t seem to work the same way as she was used to. Jane was rewriting the laws of physics as she went. 

“There is Trudvang,” Thor shouted over the rushing wind. “That small village there. This is where I built Bilskirne, my house.” 

Jane and Darcy peered at the collection of small houses, with one very large building at the outskirts, with open pastures and a large town square where there seemed to be a market going. 

“Which is your house?” Darcy yelled back.

“Ah, the one there,” Thor replied, pointing in the direction of the large building – a mansion? Castle? The shape of it was wrong for either name. It was a very strange building for a town hall.

“Near that big building?” Darcy asked.

“No, that big building is Bilskirne,” Thor replied, beginning to steer the goats towards the ground.

“That’s your…you said house,” Jane exclaimed.

“Yes?”

“And you live there alone?” Darcy asked. “How many rooms are there?”

“Ah…some five hundred and forty,” Thor replied. “Not all alone, no. My housekeeper and man-of-all-trades and their families live there as well.” He pondered for a moment, before continuing, “most of the time. They have their own places where they often stay when I’m away for longer periods.”

“Do you need five hundred and forty rooms?” Jane asked, a little overwhelmed. Her cramped trailer was looking even more cramped in hindsight.

The goats touched ground, and Thor brought them to a stop. A man came running out of the adjoined stables to take their bridles. Thor greeted him by name - Tjalve, his name was - and thanked him before jumping gracefully out of the chariot and offering Jane a hand to help her out. Once she was safely on the ground, he offered his hand to Darcy as well.

“These are my houseguests,” Thor said to the servant. “Doctor Jane Foster and her handmaiden, Darcy Lewis. Did you receive my message?”

“Yes, my lord,” the servant replied. “Roskva has prepared two suites on the floor below your top one. Ladies,” and he turned to them, “if you’d rather stay closer to the ground…”

“Nah, I like a view,” Darcy replied. “You too, right Jane?”

Jane nodded. “High up is great. Thank you…Tchaafeh, was it?” She smiled brightly at him.  
“Tjalve,” he replied, smiling. “Close enough, my lady.” He turned to Thor. “My lord, a meal will be ready in an hour, if you and your guests would care for it. Normal refreshments have been placed in the hall.”

“Excellent. Thank you.” Thor nodded briefly to him and turned to walk through the door, having seemingly dismissed the man from his mind entirely. Jane and Darcy exchanged glances and hurried after him.

“To answer your question, Jane,” Thor said, and it took him continuing before Jane remembered that she’d asked him something, “no, I need not all this space. I simply had some time on my hands, and afore I knew, the house had reached its present size.”

“When you said “you built”, you didn’t mean it figuratively, did you,” Jane murmured, still somewhat overwhelmed. 

“I had some help, but mostly I built it myself, yes. Mother designed the quick stairs.”

“Quick stairs?”

“One step brings you a whole floor higher. It is quite useful.”

“I’ll say,” Jane muttered, blinking rapidly and crossing out even more laws of physics in her head.

“So when you said you had some time on your hands, how much time did you mean – a couple of centuries?” Darcy asked as they entered a massive hall, where a decanter of something red and delicious-looking stood on a beautifully carved table, next to some biscuits, cheese and sliced apples.

“Yes.”

Jane gave up trying to make sense of it all and just accepted this weirdness that was somehow her life.

“Chambers have been prepared for you on the floor below the top one, where I reside,” Thor said. “Tjalve told you that. However, you are welcome to choose any other floor, except the fourth through eleventh.”

“Why, is that the where the rose that the witch gave you when she turned you into a monster is?”

Thor gave Darcy a strange look. “No, the top five are reserved for Sif, Balder and the Warriors three. The fourth and fifth are Loki’s floors. He has enchanted them so none may enter uninvited while he’s alive.” His eyes took on a faraway look. “’Tis how we knew him for certain to be alive. Mother had seen him, so to corroborate I attempted to enter, and could not.” 

He looked sad, so Jane reached out to take his hand in comfort, and refrained from asking who Balder was.

*****  
Jane was overwhelmed.

This was her second full day in Asgard, and Thor had apologised profoundly for not being able to spend it with her. Jane had reassured him that she’d really appreciated being shown around the previous day, and that she understood that he had duties, and really, this enchanted crystal thing that would allow her to read Asgardian was help enough, and would he just take her to the library already? And Thor had chuckled, and done just that. 

The room she was standing in was larger than the natural sciences section of the library at Culver University, and Thor had told her all the books here concerned the study of stars, planets, realms and the relationship between them. 

“Where do I even begin?” Jane muttered. She was speaking to herself in the absence of Darcy, who had been dragged along on a fishing trip with Fandral, Volstagg and four of Volstagg’s children. Darcy had brought along a tape recorder and a notebook, intending to do some observations of Asgardian warriors in a peaceful situation, accompanied by children, in the name of social customs and politics.

“Alien anthropology, Jane!” she’d enthused, and Jane had laughed and wished her luck. 

She could use some luck herself, right now. Jane looked at the speck of light that had been assigned to help her find her way in the vast room. The head librarian had called it a “library sprite”, and all she had to do was say what she wanted, and it would show her where it was. 

“Perhaps a basic guide to the stars and planets closest to Asgard space?” she said out loud, looking at the speck – and it began to whiz around until it stopped before one book. Jane gleefully rubbed her hands together, and reached for the book. And reached. And reached. She grunted in frustration. Why were people here so damned tall?

“Here,” said a male voice behind her, and a hand attached to an arm in red brocade reached over her head and plucked the book out of the shelf.

Jane grabbed the book, suppressed a squeal of delight, and turned to her helper. “Thank you, so m...so very much, your Majesty,” she finished, suppressing the urge to shrink away as she recognised Odin. She’d been introduced the previous day, and eaten with both him and Frigga – trying very hard not think about the fact that they were a) Thor’s parents, and b) rulers of the entire realm.

“You are very welcome, Doctor Jane,” Odin replied, nodding towards the table placed in the middle of the room. Jane walked over with him and placed her book on it (like everything else in this place, it was heavy), but remained standing as Odin sat down and studied her. 

Say something, Jane thought, and when Odin didn’t, she blurted out, “is every section of this library as big as this one?”

“Some are larger,” Odin replied, the corners of his eyes crinkling in amusement. “Why, has Thor not shown you?”

“He said something about having to fill some reservoirs,” Jane replied. “I didn’t quite catch everything. But he said that the librarian would help me if I wanted to go to other sections, and that I shouldn’t try to find it alone just yet.”

“He’s right,” Odin said. “One has to train and be tested before one is allowed to roam freely in here. There are those who’ve become lost in here. One even starved to death before he was found.”

Jane gulped. “Right. I’ll...ask the librarian, then.” She wanted very desperately to sit down with her book, but on the other hand, she didn’t want to seem rude. She was pretty sure that asking the king of Asgard to stop talking to her in his own library was pretty rude.

“You are very passionate about your work,” Odin said into the tense silence.

“I...yeah, I suppose I am,” Jane replied. “Actually, scratch “I suppose”. I am passionate about it.” She peered at him, trying to read his face. “Is that...a bad thing?”

“’Tis a poor existence indeed, where one is passionate of naught,” Odin said. “Your work is worthy of study, and you seem the person for it.” He peered at her. “There are those who would say that your interest in my son only reaches as far as he can give you access to the stars.”

Jane spluttered. “Why, those...do you think that?”

“No. I believe you have too much integrity for that. I’m merely warning you what others think, and might say. We rarely hold our thoughts inside for long – most of us, that is.”

“Right.” Jane felt a bit dizzy. It was like she’d had her feet kicked out from under her, only to land on a mattress of eiderdown. 

“I merely question whether you are able to be as passionate where my son is concerned,” Odin continued.

“Hey. I don’t...I don’t think you have a right to say that to me,” Jane said, quelling the voice inside her that was screaming _what are you DOING!?_

“No? I am the Allfather, and Thor is my heir. I have every right to question his choice of spouse.”

“We’re not really there yet,” Jane muttered. Odin waved his hand.

“Yet. I know my son. He’s not looked at a woman as he looks at you for...a very long time. He may not be serious yet, but he will grow so.” He sighed. “’Tis not to be cruel that I say this. As I told you, I believe that you have integrity, and your passion is good. However, the consort of the monarch of Asgard must also be the monarch’s support, to fill those qualities that he leaves open.” He stood, and Jane shrank back automatically. 

“Understand this, Jane Foster. Thor may be yours, but he belongs to Asgard first, and his life must be devoted to her good. I have in the past regretted that I’ve had to choose kingship over fatherhood, but all the same, I know it was necessary, and Thor knows the same. Are you willing to share him, knowing that you can never be first in his heart? Furthermore, will you be the consort he needs? He is brave and caring, and inspires a great deal of loyalty in others, but he is also blind to disloyalty. I had hoped his consort would help him with that side of ruling. Tell me, Jane Foster – can you look away from the stars long enough to see those that would stab him in the back? Do you understand the task before him well enough to give him your support when it’s right to, and stay his hands when that is right?” He peered at her with his one eye, seeming looking right into her soul.

Jane shuffled her feet. “I...don’t know.”

Odin’s face softened. “There is also the concern for you. Would you be happy with him? As I said, he can never place you first, and you will face opposition from others due to your mortal heritage.”

“From you, too?”

Odin sighed. “Not in the way you think. I have spoken as a king, but there is one concern I have as a father. “

“Oh?”

He looked her in the eyes, and Jane thought that he suddenly looked as ancient as he was. “Your life will last for perhaps sixty more years, Thor’s for perhaps six thousand, if not more. Any children you may have, would most likely take after you in lifespan. There is nothing more painful than losing a child. I’d...rather not see my son go through that. Better not to risk it.”

Jane was quiet for a long time, before saying, very quietly, “I think, maybe, that’s his choice?”

*****  
Thor tilted his head back and let the rain wash over his face. He smiled, enjoying the sensation. Rain had always helped to lighten his mood, and for just a moment, he let all worries wash away with the water droplets. 

From some distance away, out from under the heavy but extremely localised clouds, Freyr grinned. “Shall I leave you and the rain alone for some time, Lord Thor?”

Thor laughed. “No need. I’m done. The reservoir will be full within the hour, and a soft rain will fall on your northern fields the next seven nights.”

“Thank you.”

“Again, no need. I should thank you for feeding all of us.” Thor took a deep breath and looked out over the fields where the abundant bounty of the earth was growing. Ever since he first learned to control weather rather than just predict it, Freyr had recruited him to ensure a steady water supply to the massive fields that fed all of Asgard.

“I dare say we had the best of the bargain when you and Hoenir exchanged dwellings to seal the peace between us. ’Twas good fortune indeed, for us, when you came here from Vanaheim,” Thor said. “Do you miss home?”

“Occasionally, I do,” Freyr replied. “But this is my home now. Mostly, I find I often miss my sister, but we have found a way to speak, so less than I could have.”

“And how fares the fair Freya?” Thor very resolutely avoided mentioning any of his own siblings. He wouldn’t have minded talking about Balder, who, being in Vanaheim as an ambassador probably would have been more logical to talk of, but he wanted to avoid even the chance of having to discuss Loki. “And your father?”

“Father is growing older,” Freyr replied. “I fear he’ll reach the end of his strength soon. Freya is well, as always – loved and admired, as always.”

“Still using her pretty face to lull those who don’t know her into thinking there’s no brain behind it?”

Freyr laughed. “One would think there were none left to fall for it, but there are. You use that trick yourself, at times, do you not?”

“I’m pleased that you think I’m pretty.”

Freyr laughed again. “More rage and drunkenness to use for hiding in your case, but all the same. You appear to have calmed down recently, though.”

“I no longer have the luxury of playing the drunken, angry lout,” Thor replied, summoning a light breeze to dry out his hair and clothes. His good mood seemed to disappear with the water droplets, and he looked almost downcast. “I have little time for any luxuries anymore.”

Freyr patted his shoulder comfortingly. 

*****  
“Heimdall.”

“Allfather.”

“What have you heard?”

“I have listened to rumours, to whispers, to murmurings. Now, I have heard where those rumours may have started.”

“Tell me, bridgekeeper. Who sows unrest? Who rallies against us?”

“Your youngest son tells me he has heard them as well. The whispers come from Vanaheim.”

*****

 

“Enter,” Frigga called at the knock on her door. When the door failed to open, she walked up to it and opened it herself. Jane was standing outside, with a very frustrated look on her face.

“Why is everything so damned heavy here?” she muttered angrily. 

Frigga’s lips twitched. “Well, we don’t find them quite that heavy,” she replied.

“Yeah, intellectually I realise that,” Jane said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s less frustrating that I can’t open the doors on my own. Or that I have to lift the cups with both hands. Or that I can’t actually hold the books for very long. And...” she trailed off.

“And what?” Frigga prompted gently. 

“I know you gave me something that would help me read them, but I still can’t really understand. It’s a whole different scientific language, and when I think I’ve got something, I read something else that means I have to rewrite my entire theory again.”

“Do you wish you’d stayed?”

“No!” Jane exclaimed. “I love it here! I love that I have this opportunity. There’s all this knowledge, and I can just reach out and grab it. And I’m not upset about having to work for it, either.”

“Everything worthwhile is worth working for,” Frigga said.

Jane nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I’m just tired of taking two steps back for every step forwards.”

“Well,” Frigga said, “if there’s anything I might do to aid you, feel free to come to me. I might have the knowledge you need to unravel your mysteries. As for your other concern...” She walked to one of her intricately carved chests, opened it and withdrew a pair of bracers. “These increase your strength by nine. Have care, though. You cannot wear them for too long – no more than a day at a time – or you’ll injure yourself.”

Jane took the bracers, her eyes very round. “Wow. That’s...thank you.”

“No,” Frigga said. “Thank you. Until you came, I had wondered if I’d ever see Thor smile again.”

“I’ve gotten the impression that he hasn’t had much to smile about,” Jane said carefully.

“Perhaps true. The frustration of not being able to do what needs doing has been wearing on him. He’s also not honest with his own feelings with regard to Loki.” She peered at Jane. “Perhaps you can convince him not to give up.”

Jane didn’t say anything, but her expressive face showed some discomfort.

“Doctor Jane?”

“Are you asking for Thor’s sake or Loki’s?”

Frigga blinked. “Does it matter?” 

“A bit. To be honest, I’m interesting in helping Thor, but it just seems like this’ll hurt him more. He says that Loki refuses to admit he’s even done anything wrong, and honestly, I really think Loki should take the first step.”

“Loki is incarcerated,” Frigga said. “He cannot come to Thor.”

“He can send a message.”

“If he’s to heal, he shouldn’t be pressured too much.”

“With all due respect,” Jane said with temper evident in her voice, “it sounds like he’s been pressured too little. Saying “sorry” isn’t so much. And quite frankly, he mind-raped my mentor. Apologizing for that would have to come before I’m willing to help him with anything. And, Majesty, you’ve yet to say how this benefits Thor.”

“Thor loves his brother.”

“That’s not the issue. Sometimes love isn’t enough.” 

Frigga’s face looked as though it had been carved in granite. One part of Jane was screaming at her that she’d already offended one half of the royal couple of Asgard, what was she doing offending the second one – one who’d actually helped her? Another part was saying pretty coldly and cynically that if Frigga didn’t like it, maybe she should stop coddling her homicidal, unrepentant son and actually consider the feelings of the son who was trying to do his best.

Then again, she was a guest here.

“I’m sorry,” Jane bit out. “You’ve been really generous, and there was no call for me to talk to you like that.”

“You are not sorry,” Frigga replied, her jaw still stiff, but her voice calm. “You clearly believe that you are right.”

_And I am, but you can’t admit that_ , Jane very carefully didn’t say. It was clear that Frigga wasn’t open for any more discussion. Obviously, Thor got his stubbornness from _both_ parents.


	7. Boiling points

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the whole "post before the movie is out" thing was kind of ruined by the movie coming out sooner some places than others. It's not out where I live, so I'll just keep it up. I'm almost at the end anyway.

«Is this normal behaviour for her?» Sif whispered to Jane when Darcy stopped babbling for one moment to stare at the intricate mosaic covering an entire wall in Sif’s dining room. 

“I haven’t seen her like this before,” Jane whispered back. “But I haven’t seen her when she’s got a unique reason to be enthusiastic about her field, either.”

“I can hear you, you know,” Darcy said. “And I’ve suffered through enough of your going on and on about whatever tiny particle of stardust you found that’s never been found before, you can live with me talking about revolutionizing comparative social politics for a while.”

“’Twas an observation, not a criticism,” Sif said. “Enthusiasm is a beautiful thing.”

“What are you enthusiastic about?” Jane asked.

“Fighting. Asgard. At one occasion, fighting Asgard for the right to fight for Asgard.” She smiled cynically. “It was an interesting time.”

“Care to tell me about it?” Darcy asked. “Extensively? On tape?”

Jane elbowed her. Sif laughed. “Darcy Lewis, I’d be happy to. This is interesting to you?”

“Are you kidding? I actually get to ask someone who rebelled against sexual norms centuries ago and is still alive to talk about the changes it started? That’s like my dream, right there.” Darcy thought for a moment. “Well, okay, I’d also want to look at how it fits into the larger political framework, but...”

“Then I shall speak for as long as you need me to.”

“Have things changed?” Darcy asked.

“Of course. We are not static. Still, most men have some tasks and most women other tasks, but there are women who do otherwise and men also. Before, it was much less accepted. One more or less had to be Odin Allfather to go outside the role dictated by one’s sex.”

Darcy, who’d begun making notes, paused. “Wait a minute. Odin defied gender roles? Really?”

“He wore a dress to learn seidr. This was long before I was born, so I only heard tell of it afterwards.”

“Huh.” Darcy scribbled a bit more. “Think he’d tell me if I asked him?”

“Why would he not?”

“Well, he might not want that spread to Earth? I will publish this, you know.”

“I fail to see why that should matter.”

Both Darcy and Jane peered at her suspiciously. “Right,” Darcy said. “What we think isn’t that important, is it?”

“Not if you are so opposed to the seeking of knowledge,” Sif replied bluntly.

Jane chuckled. “Right. I can see that.” She sighed. “You know, my dad didn’t want me to follow in his footsteps. He wanted me to be a nurse. He said that astrophysics wasn’t a very welcoming field for a woman. He was right, but...”

“But this was your passion.”

“Yeah. Still, I think he got some ribbing from his colleagues when I started. That’s the only thing I feel guilty about. If it was just him opposed, then whatever – rebel against your parents, and all that. But I didn’t want him to lose the respect of the people he’d worked with for years.”

Sif frowned. “I don’t understand. Your actions are yours. Why should they reflect on him?”

“What, guys aren’t looked down on for not being able to keep their womenfolk in line here?”

“No? Your honour is defined by your actions, not those of those around you.”

“That’s a nice attitude,” Darcy said. “We should adopt that. Maybe people would finally get rid of the whole “she asked for it” rhetoric then. I like it.” She shrugged. “PoliSci is a soft science, so I didn’t get that opposition. But try wanting sex without strings in a town where everyone knows everyone.”

“That’d not happen here either,” Sif said. “My choices are mine. Still, I believe you have a larger variety of choice.” She sighed. “Mostly because there are so many more of you, and you live your lives so much faster. Asgard has changed since I demanded to be included in the warriors’ ranks, but the change has been slow. And, perhaps, in needing to define one’s own honour, those who struggle to do so fall to the side. You are more considerate of those who cannot be exceptional, I think.” She grinned at them. “Then again, you two are quite exceptional, and you shine as brightly as any I’ve known.”

“Aaaaaw, we love you too, Sif,” Darcy said.

As the evening wore on, and Darcy eventually got tipsy on wine and excused herself, and Jane and Sif were left alone, Jane dared broach the topic that had been on her mind for some time.

“I think I might’ve insulted both Odin and Frigga.”

Sif raised her eyebrows. “Oh?”

“Yeah. I accused them of not being considerate enough of Thor.”

Sif was quiet for some time, before looking Jane straight in the eyes. “Thank you.”

It felt like a load had lifted from Jane’s shoulders. “You think I’m right.”

“I’ve thought the same thoughts over the time, but I’ve feared I was too biased to see clearly.” She smiled at Jane. “I doubt you’re any less biased, but if we can both see it, and you after so short an acquaintance...” She shook her head.

“Yeah.” Jane leaned back in her chair and sipped a bit more wine.

“How goes the Bifrost repairs?”

“Oh, they say they’ll soon be able to aim them at other realms than just Earth. They seem pretty excited about it.”

“Good. I believe it would be good for Balder to return soon. Everything has seemed more tense since he left on his duties.”

“Who is Balder, anyway?” Jane asked. “Thor mentioned his name, but didn’t say anything else.”

Sif blinked. “His youngest brother.”

Jane stared at her. “He has another one?”

Sif’s face seemed to be stiffening in a grimace of quiet fury. “Yes, he does.”

*****  
“How goes it?”

Hoenir, once of Asgard, now of Vanaheim, snorted.

“The boy is questioning too much. He may grow suspicious, and thus force us to change our plans.”

His co-conspirator frowned. “That is not good. We need continuity, but Odin has grown too old, Loki is eminently unsuited, and Thor’s too preoccupied with all realms _but_ Asgard. If we cannot convince Balder that he must take the throne...”

“Then we kill the others and leave him the only one left. What does the Jotun say?”

“Helblindi is ready. He wishes to restore his people’s name and avenge Laufey.”

“He hated his father.”

“Well, yes. He’s not stupid.” A smile. “Not that stupid. He doesn’t seem to have realised that we’re using him. Still, if you provide the battleground, I shall provide his opponent. I have finally isolated those of the army who’re royalists no matter what.”

“Then are we ready?”

“We are. Let the battle commence.”

Hoenir smiled. “I’ll let you decide, Tyr.”

*****  
Once Darcy and Jane woke up the next morning, Sif took them back to Bilskirne.

No, wait. 

Once they finally woke up, Sif stormed over to Bilskirne, leaving Jane and Darcy to try to keep up with her.

“THOR!” Sif bellowed. “Where are you!?”

“M’lady? M’lord is in the reception room at the top floor.” Thor’s housekeeper seemed entirely unruffled by the ruckus.

“Thank you, Roskva. Come, Jane, Darcy.” Without letting them catch their breath, Sif strode to the quickstairs, and took two steps/floors in one stride. Jane and Darcy ran after her.

“Why’s she so upset?” Darcy managed to ask between breaths.

“I’m not sure,” Jane replied.

Sif kicked the door open. Thor rose from his chair, cup of warm broth in his hand. “Sif? What is wrong? Hello Jane, Darcy.”

Jane managed a small wave at him. Darcy had her hands on her knees, and she was panting for breath.

“You,” Sif snarled. “You’ve not _told them_ about Balder? Have you forgotten you have not one, but two brothers?”

Thor frowned. “I’ve not forgotten. But it is not possible to see Balder right now, and either way, there is no trouble with him.”

Sif’s lip curled in disgust. “So, you only see those close to you when they are also physically close? Unless they are causing you trouble, they are not worthy of concern?”

Thor was starting to look angry now as well. “One brother has tried to kill me, the other has not. Is it not more immediate that I spend my energy trying to find out the reasons for the first’s murderous intent?”

“Has it not occurred to you,” Sif bit out, “that you could stand to spend a little less time on one who has repeatedly betrayed you, and more on those who have not?” She shook her head. “I follow you, Thor, but don’t take me for granted, and not the rest either. Balder deserves to be at least spoken of to the woman you are courting. Your friends deserve not to have you take your poor mood out on them. Asgard deserves that you show care for her, and not only every other realm. And you need to stop lying to yourself, and stop running like a coward!”

“You dare!?” Thor roared.

“Yes!” Sif bellowed back. “You need to remove your head from your own backside and begin thinking with it!” 

Thor roared wordlessly and hurled his cup into the fireplace, where it shattered. He turned to Sif again, fury in his eyes. “Get out.”

“Gladly.”

Sif turned on her heel and left. Darcy shifted from foot to foot for a moment before saying, very quickly, “I agree with her by the way,” and turning to run after her.

“Thor...” Jane began.

“Have you no mysteries of the universe to unravel!?” Thor snarled at her.

Jane stared at him. “Ooookay. I’ll be going with Sif and Darcy, then. Come see me when you’ve decided to act like a grown-up.” With that she left.

Thor sank back into his chair and put his hand over his eyes.


	8. Realisations and confrontations

Tyr had chosen to meet with Helblindi Laufeyson outside one small Vane village, behind a copse of trees that would hide the Jotun. It was also on a small hill, so Tyr could stand slightly higher up than Helblindi, and avoid having to look up at him. The Jotun noticed the trick, but refrained from commenting. 

“Is all ready from your side?” Tyr asked. 

“It is. We attack at dawn.”

“Try not to kill too many villagers. It’ll be harder to keep Balder from killing you in retaliation.”

“There will be some loss,” Helblindi said. “Villagers, your people and mine. I deem it acceptable loss if you’ll keep your promise to me.”

“I’ll covertly support your bid for the throne,” Tyr said. “And give you the Midgardian North Pole. I cannot guarantee that the Midgardians will accept that without a fight, though, but I’ll keep Asgard away.”

Helblindi snorted. “The Midgardians are no problem.”

Tyr shook his head. “According to Thor, they’ve grown mightier over the years. They may prove some trouble – though less so against you in a land of ice.” 

Helblindi tilted his head and gave Tyr a hard stare. “Thor. I must admit, I was surprised that you would conspire against him. I had thought you fond of him.”

“I am,” Tyr replied. “He’s the best I ever trained, a mighty protector not only of Asgard but all nine realms. He stopped the attack on your world, you know.”

“Oh? This surprises me even more than your conspiring. What think you brought about his change of heart?”

“His heart’s not changed,” Tyr replied. “Thor simply sees the world in terms of those who need protecting, and those they need protecting from. When the Bifrost was turned against you, your people moved from the latter category to the former.” He sighed. “This is why I conspire against him. A king cannot see the world so simply.”

“There is no chance of him or Odin turning up?”

“None. The Bifrost cannot reach Vanaheim for a week yet. Only Vane magic will allow travel between the worlds, and Odin sacrificed his powers of worldwalking to create the Bifrost in the first place.” He turned to look out to the horizon, but his gaze was turned inwards. “Then, when Hoenir calls Balder for help, Balder will bring the forces that I sent to protect him against your people two years ago, you will retreat, and it will become all too clear that Odin and Thor cannot protect the realms, and Balder can. From there, discontent will continue to grow. Many of the people of Asgard already fear all other members of the royal family. I’ve seen to that.”

“I care not,” Helblindi said. “As long as I have what you promised.”

“You shall.”

*****  
Thor sat in the darkness of his sitting room and brooded. In a fit of pique, he’d summoned some dark clouds to block out the bright midday sun, just so he could brood more properly. 

The door opened, and Roskva walked into the room. She took one long look at her employer, and sighed, lighting candles and walking over to the fireplace to clean up the broken glass there. 

“Leave it,” Thor said.

“As you wish, my Lord.” She bypassed the fireplace and continued cleaning the rest of the room.

“Roskva...how long have you worked for me? Five hundred years?”

“Thereabouts, yes.”

Thor tried his best not to fidget. “Have you been happy?” he blurted out.

Roskva paused in her work. She straightened to look at him. Something in the anxious set of his shoulders must have moved her, because her gaze softened. “Yes, my lord. The first three decades, when my brother and I were still indentured was hard, but it was a just punishment for our transgression against your livestock, and you set us free and offered us employment with full rights when you said you would. You’ve warned us ahead if there would be a great increase of work, paid us fair wages and given us holidays, and you settled a cottage upon each of us at our marriages. You’ve been a fair master.”

“I take you for granted, sometimes.”

“You do. But that is our jobs. We are your servants first, not your friends. That you ever act friendly towards us at all is much more than most masters.”

Thor looked away. “May I ask you a personal question?”

“You may.”

“Do you and Tjalve ever fight?”

Roskva laughed. “Of course we do. We’re siblings, and what siblings don’t ever fight? Oh yes, our rows can be both lengthy and loud.”

Thor turned to look at her again, a desperate and fragile hope in his eyes. “And...what do you do afterwards?”

Roskva smiled gently. “Why, I brood and rage and eventually calm down, and if I were in the wrong, I apologise. He does the same. We hurt each other, but we acknowledge that hurt and work beyond it.” She moved up to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You are allowed to be hurt, my lord.”

Thor put his hand over hers and gave it a squeeze, before standing. “Thank you, wise Roskva, for your counsel. I believe I have a place I must be.”

Roskva nodded. “I believe so, too.”

*****  
Loki looked up when Thor entered the antechamber to his cell. “I had not thought I’d see you again for some time. I thought for certain you’d be too busy with your mortal wench.”

Thor ignored him and sat down, back to Loki. He was quiet for some time. Finally, he said, “Should I have _not_ asked you along?”

“Pardon?”

“When we were young. I only ever wanted you with me, to experience what I experienced, but should I have not? You say you were in my shadow, and I have tried to find out what I did to put you there, but the answer kept eluding me, and every possibility I came up with, you scorned. Finally, I realised I did that simply by existing.” Loki swallowed a gasp, and Thor sighed heavily. “I will not apologise for being born, Loki. And I’ll not apologise for your not being the centre of my existence, either. If that is what you’re waiting for...then there’ll be no more words between us. I’ll be going to Vanaheim, to meet with our brother and find out what’s happening, what plot is against us.”

Loki’s mind was still reeling from Thor’s words. He grasped on to the one thing he could deal with right then. “How will you travel?”

“I thought I’d try riding the lightning. Mother may not be a worldwalker, but she’s still a Vane, and the magic is dormant in her. I believe I may be able to wake it in me.”

“You could die.”

“That should save you some trouble, then.” Thor’s voice was rough.

“I thought you had forgiven me for those murder attempts,” Loki said quietly.

Thor sighed heavily. “Yes. I thought I had, too. How strange, to find one’s heart is not as forgiving as one thinks.” He turned to look Loki in the face for the first time since he’d entered the room. “Mind you, I would probably be more forgiving if you’d shown the slightest hint that you’re not upset that I survived.” He closed his now wet eyes and shook his head, his voice growing even rougher. “That’s the problem, Loki. You lied to me, and told me that I had caused Father’s death. You sent the Destroyer after me, not caring which innocents it trampled on the way. You kept on trying to lie to me. You dropped me out of a flying vessel, intending to ‘put my immortality to the test’. I offered you a chance of redemption, and you _stabbed_ me. And you’ve yet to express any regret of any of this. Are you too proud to apologise, or do you simply not care for me enough to do so?”

“Have you given up on me?” Loki’s eyes were growing wet as well, and his voice was broken.

“Why not? You’ve given up on yourself.” Thor rose to his feet again. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have to stop a potential war.” He paused at the door, and turned to look at Loki again. “Make no mistake, brother. I still love you. I simply cannot, for the life of me, remember why.” With that, he left the room, too caught up in his own heartbreak to notice Darcy standing in the shadows. None of them noticed the slight rustle of movement in the rafters above Darcy’s head.

“Wow, pretty harsh,” Darcy said, walking into the room where Loki had sunk to the floor, staring vacantly into space. “Mind you, I think you deserved that.”

“You would be Doctor Jane Foster, then.” Loki tried to speak normally, but only partially succeeded.

Darcy laughed. “Nah, I’m Darcy Lewis. I’m Jane’s entourage.”

“I see. And to what do I owe the pleasure?” Loki said, making it as clear as he could in his voice that it was no pleasure at all. 

“Just wanted to ask you something.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I’ve been listening to other people’s stories about you, and I was just left wondering one thing. Do you get off on ruining your own life, or what?”

“Mind your tongue, mortal!” Loki snapped, surging to his feet. “I ought destroy you for that.”

“You can’t, though,” Darcy said. “Not while you’re in there. And, you know what? Your mom said I could tell you how to get out.” She frowned. “She actually encouraged me coming here to read you the riot act. I think she’s decided you can’t keep wallowing in self-pity.”

“What?”

“Well, basically she wants you to, ah, ‘remove your head from your backside and start thinking with it’, to quote a friend about a friend.”

“Mortal, you know how I can escape this prison?”

“Not escape. That would mean you’re supposed to still be in there. Leave, as in you’ve been set free. She says that you’ll be able to get out once you sincerely, honestly regret what you did to all the innocent people you hurt and resolve not to do it again.” She gave him a long look. “I’ll probably die of old age before that happens.”

“Innocents, innocents, innocents!” Loki snarled. “What of my innocence? I didn’t ask to be abandoned, or to be adopted by a society where my talents would be reviled.”

“Whoa, what?” 

“You...didn’t know. I thought...”

“Thought it was all over Asgard by now?” Darcy peered at him. “What happened, exactly?”

“Why should I tell you?”

“Because I’m not your friend, or your enemy. I’m kinda pissed off at you for what you did to Puente Antiguo and Erik and New York, but I’m willing to listen. It’s not that you should tell me, it’s that you want to, and I’m right here for you to talk to.”

Loki stared at her for a long moment before he began speaking. “I was born on Jotunheim, a runt abandoned by his birth parents. The Allfather found me after the war and brought me with him. I’ve never fit in. I use magic. Most Asgardian males use weapons. I’ve never been accepted, but I thought at least I was one of them by birth.”

“Your parents didn’t tell you?”

“No.”

Darcy pondered that for some time. “Okay, that sucks. But about the magic thing...dude, your entire society is built on magic. Odin uses magic, Thor’s weather powers are magic. If I understood Frigga right, your physical age is determined by your mental maturity, so you’re literally as old as you feel – so your very biology is magical.” She frowned. “Which doesn’t make sense, ‘cause you sure look older than five. Anyway, are you sure it’s magic they distrust, and not you and what you do with it?”

_It’s not the talent that matters, but what you use it for_ , Odin’s voice from centuries ago whispered. Loki shook his head.

“Do you know what I saw in the abyss, little mortal girl?” he asked. “I saw myself in a number of realities. In some I was Odin’s brother, in others his son. In some I had red hair, in others black. In one, I was a plush toy. In some, I changed genders, in others, I stole the bodies of other people. Do you know what was true in every single one of them?”

Darcy shook her head.

“In none of them did it end well for me. I was killed, I was tortured, I was imprisoned. Never was I happy for the rest of my life.”

Darcy was quiet for some time, before she asked in a soft voice, “In how many of these realities did you face up to the consequences of your actions?”

Loki stared at her.

“It just seems to me,” Darcy said, “that your problem is that you fucked up, and fucked up even more by trying to escape from the consequences of said fucking up. If you’d just said “sorry” from the beginning, you wouldn’t be in the shit you’re in right now. But I could be wrong. So, how many of those realities had a Loki who tried to clean up his own mess?”

“One. And he was betrayed by another version of himself.”

“So even when Loki tries to be good, Loki fucks him up.” Darcy winced. “That’s harsh, dude. Got any other versions of yourself running around in this reality?”

“No.”

“Well, then.” She smiled at him. “Maybe you should try not being predictable and do something responsible for once. ‘Cause man, I gotta say – at this point, the one thing we can count on is you picking the worst option possible.” She winked at him. “Try not doing that this time.”

Loki stared after her as she left. He shook his head. The mortal was deluded. Still...something in him was stirring. 

Something that wanted to prove Thor wrong.

“Given up on myself, have I?” he muttered, before raising his voice. “Heimdall? I know not if this is important, but when I out of perverse curiosity asked for the book of Jotun customs of inheritance...” He paused, and added, “I simply wished to be certain that I would not be forced to go there and take the throne. Either way, they told me that the book had already been borrowed from the library by General Tyr.” 

*****  
Jane was staring at the mosaic that Darcy had been admiring the last time they’d been to see Sif. “Waitaminute, you made this?”

“’Tis a hobby.”

“It’s gorgeous.”

Sif smiled at her. “Thank you.” She held out a cup of broth, and Jane took it gratefully.

“Are you very angry with Thor?” she asked, looking carefully at Sif.

Sif sighed. “Yes, but my anger burns out quickly. It’ll not last long.” She peered at Jane. “I must admit, this courtship of yours...It’s not gone how I had expected it to.”

Jane laughed. “Oh, we‘ve been whispering sweet nothings to each other as well. It’s just...well, Thor’s the first guy I’ve met who’s realised that when I have a unique opportunity like this, I need to work on it, and not spend all my time giggling and playing hide the sausage.” She smiled. “It’s why I was drawn to him in the first place, actually. Yeah, he’s pretty. Like, really pretty. Like, romance novel cover gorgeous. But he also told me that I was clever, and helped steal my research back, and encouraged me when I wanted to give up. That counts for more than nice abs and a wide smile.”

Sif smiled at her. “I was worried, but it seems you will do fine.”

Jane frowned. “What were you worried about?”

“Thor can be...overwhelming. In one way, I understand Loki. It’s hard not to be caught in his shadow. You, however, seem intent on shining on your own.”

“Yeah,” Jane said quietly, but her mind was churning. Odin’s words were flickering through her head. _Can you look away from the stars long enough to see those who would stab him in the back?_

What if she couldn’t both keep her sense of self, and give him the support he needed? 

“My lady?” Sif’s housekeeper said, standing in the doorway. “Lord Thor is here. He’s carrying in blueberry bush.”

Jane blinked, but Sif just rolled her eyes. “Of course he is. I’ll go see him. Thank you.”

The housekeeper nodded respectfully and backed away. Sif looked at Jane. “Well, then. Shall we go accept his apology?”

“That’s what the bush is?” Jane asked, hurrying after Sif down the hall. Sif nodded.

“He knows I like blueberries, and when on their bushes they last longer than when picked. Is that not right, Thor?” She opened the door to Thor’s grinning face.

“Quite so, my most trusted deliverer of much-needed kicks in the backside. I was wrong, and you were right. I shall try to do better.”

“Plant that bush, and I’ll give you another chance,” Sif said, walking to an intricately carved box at the edge of her garden and retrieving a spade. Thor took it without comment. 

“And will you apologise to Jane as well?” Sif asked, as Jane ran up next to them. Thor’s eyes widened.

“I knew not she was here. Shall I apologise to her before I plant your blueberries?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. May we have some privacy, please?”

Sif nodded and walked away, and Thor turned to Jane. 

“Jane...I’m sorry. I spoke harshly to you, and took out my anger on you.”

“That was you taking out your anger on me?” Jane asked. “Thor, if that’s as bad as you get, that’s nothing.”

“It might be worse. I can be cruel at times.”

“Okay.” Jane thought for a moment. “Do you respect my intelligence and the work I do?”

Thor blinked. “Of course.”

“I’ll take my chances, then. You’re forgiven.” She spread her arms, and Thor stepped over to hug her.

“You came to apologise to Sif before me,” Jane said into his chest.

“You were not at the library or the observatory. She was not at the training grounds. Then I thought that with Sif, at least, I could leave the apology on her doorstep were she not where I went to look for her. And Heimdall said he saw her at home.” Thor frowned. “He said nothing of you being here as well.”

“Yeah, see, I asked him not to tell you. I figured a spontaneous apology would be more honest.”

Thor thought for a moment. “Then you are not upset I went to Sif first?”

“Kinda sounds like you didn’t, she was just the first you found.”

“You are both important to me.”

“Good,” Jane said decisively. They stood there for some time, holding each other, until there were some faint voices in the distance, and Thor stiffened.

“What is it?” Jane asked, but her question was answered as Sif came walking towards them with hurried steps. “Thor? There is a message for you from Heimdall.”

*****  
Balder the Brave, son of Odin Allfather and Frigga the Wise, brother of the Mighty Thor of the Thunders and Cunning Loki, surveyed the scene below him with horror. Once bountiful fields were frozen, and once proud Vane adults and children were penned in. Small cottages had had their roofs removed, so their new occupants could stand upright inside them. Jotun warriors were stalking the streets of the tiny hamlet.

“It’s as bad as I was told, my lord,” Hoenir said. “This atrocity cannot be borne.”

“It seems they’ve killed few,” Balder mused. “Why? And how did they come to be here in the first place?”

“Does it matter?”

Balder turned his head to stare at him in complete surprise. “Of course it matters. Although...perhaps not so much to them.” He indicated the animal pens where the former inhabitants of the hamlet were huddled together. 

“Then?”

Instead of answering, Balder turned to his troops. “We move quietly. Gunnar, Sven, go first – stand ready to take down the guards around the prisoners. All of you, don’t reveal yourselves until we are close enough to take them quickly.” He gestured, and the troops began to move.

Down in the hamlet, Helblindi was watching for Asgardians. He alone of his people knew they were there, and he had to wait until he could conceivably spot them by accident, so as to not give away the ruse, but he also had his people’s safety to consider. So he watched very hard, but tried to be subtle about it.

There! Movement!

“INTRUDERS!” he bellowed, and every one of the Jotun warriors, even those asleep, sprang to their feet and began looking around for the intruders.

Asgardian warriors sprang from behind bushes and buildings – much closer than Helblindi had expected – and attacked. Helblindi saw that the two he’d set to guard the villagers had been taken down – knocked out or killed, he didn’t know. He didn’t have time to worry about them. He’d recognised the face of Balder the Brave, and he saw one of his people get ready to let loose a stream of ice magic in the prince’s direction.

Tyr would _not_ be pleased if Balder died. 

“Balder!” Helblindi roared. “Fight me, whelp of Odin!”

“Helblindi of Jotunheim, we need not do this!” Balder yelled back, moving towards him – and out of the line of fire.

“We do!” Helblindi replied. The air was electric with tension, and Helblindi’s blood was pounding in his ears, almost drowning out the shouts and screams of the fighters which echoed over the small hamlet. He raised his spear and began running towards Balder, intending to knock him out of the battlefield.

And then thunder roared across the sky, drowning out all other noise. One small piece of lightning struck near a boulder and Hoenir came out from behind it, looking frayed. Something that looked disturbingly like a hammer flew into the woods. And then a much larger strike of lightning hit right at Balder and Helblindi’s feet, something powerful and warm grabbed Helblindi’s wrist, and when he could see again, Thor was standing between them, having grabbed Balder’s wrist just as he had Helblindi’s. 

“ENOUGH!” Thor thundered, and the word was repeated across the sky: “enough...enough...enough...”

Helblindi hadn’t know that thunder could convey words.

Thor’s head turned to Balder. “You. Tell your people to cease fighting and fall back.” He turned to Helblindi. “You. Do the same.”

“You have no authority here, Thunderer!” Hoenir bellowed.

Thor’s eyes narrowed. He turned to the huddled villagers. “You, there! Who speaks for the village?”

One young woman stood. “Uh, I think it’s me. I’m the wisewoman in training. The headman and wisewoman are away.”

“Your name?” 

“Eldrid.”

“Wisewoman Eldrid, would you care for me to ensure that these two armies leave without causing any more harm to you or your homes?”

Eldrid blinked. “Uh...yes please?”

“There,” Thor said. “Now I have authority. Anyone else care to challenge it?”

Balder’s lips twitched. “It shan’t be me, brother.” He pulled his hand away, and Thor let him. Balder called to his troops: “Stand down.”

Hoenir was sputtering. Helblindi could feel his efforts being turned to naught. He glared at Thor.

Thor raised an eyebrow at him. “Helblindi, I can feel you freezing the blood in my arm. I am trying to be more diplomatic with your people, but I will defend myself. If I lose my arm, so will you.” He frowned, and Helblindi felt a small sting in his fingers. 

He stared at Thor. “You can channel lightning without the hammer?”

“I always could.” Thor let go of his hand, and Helblindi didn’t even think of trying to strike him. “Now, you were promised certain things by General Tyr.”

Helblindi blinked. “Yes. He promised his support in my bid for the throne, and certain areas suitable for our dwelling there.”

Thor turned to face him fully. “In five days, the Bifrost will be fully functional again. I intend to use it to go to Jotunheim – the same place that I went before – and deliver the Casket of Eternal Winters into the first hands of authority I see.” He looked Helblindi straight in the eyes. “If you wish those hands to be yours, you’d better begin your journey home now.”

Helblindi stared at him. The Casket would...change everything. “Yes,” he said slowly. “I believe I had better.” He stepped away from Thor, and raised his voice so his troops could hear him. “Get ready to leave. We are going back to Jotunheim.” 

Once the Jotuns were gone, Balder approached Thor. “Did I hear you say ‘Tyr’?” 

Thor looked towards the woods. “Yes, you did.” He looked around. “I see you’ve sent your people away.”

“When you were dealing with the Jotun. You seemed to have it under control.”

Thor laughed.

Balder grinned. “It is good to see you, brother, though I wish the circumstances had been different. It would appear I have been set up.”

“We’ll see.” Thor reached out and grasped Balder’s neck, giving him a fond look. “You look well.”

“I have been.”

They smiled at each other again. Thor’s smile fell away first. “Come, brother. There is an unpleasant duty we must discharge.” He nodded respectfully to the young wisewoman, who had finally dared venture out into the village square again, her people following after her. “My apologies for this mess, Wisewoman Eldrid. We shall of course see to it that your homes are repaired and your crops replaced.”

“I...yes. Thank you.” Her returned nod was more like a bow.

When she looked up again, Thor winked at her before turning to walk with Balder towards the woods.


	9. New chances

Tyr was lying on the soft forest floor, Mjolnir pinning him down. Thor stopped a man’s length away and eyed him critically.

“So, given the role of those troops you sent to Balder in the plot, I assume this has been underfoot at least since my unfortunate folly with Jotunheim?”

Tyr snorted. “Some time before that, yes. I knew not what we would do at that time, but I had to take the opportunity to place some troops with Lord Balder, in case they would come to use.”

“I assume you hatched this plot through Frey and Freya’s communication device?”

“Are you insane? Freya is too cunning. She would have seen through it immediately. No, but Njord, their father, had one as well, and he is growing old and feeble. We were able to work around him. Frey cares not for anything but his crops. I asked mostly during harvest. I doubt he even remembers.”

Balder nodded. “And then Hoenir helped locate someone willing to help you move between realms without the bridge. Vane magic.”

“Indeed.”

“Then only one question remains,” Thor said. He held out his hand and summoned Mjolnir, allowing Tyr to sit up and look at him warily. “Why?”

“You are not fit to be king,” Tyr spat. “You are too trusting, too blind, too rash and too hot-tempered. The people fear you as well. Look at you, you used lightning to travel between worlds! You could defeat any number of our people! They would fear you, and you would not see it, and it would bring the monarchy down. I had to find a better solution.”

Thor turned around and looked out where they could just glimpse the fields that had been frozen in the Jotun attack. “You think yourself qualified to judge what is better?”

Tyr flinched.

“Um,” Balder said, “I don’t want the throne. I’ll be happy to advise or stay as an ambassador, but I don’t want kingship, and I told Hoenir that when he began flattering me. Loki’s next in line anyway.”

Both Thor and Tyr flinched. “About that,” Thor said.

Balder sighed. “I thought for certain the ravens must have had it wrong when they said Loki had betrayed us. They also said he was dead, and then alive again. Are you saying this was true?”

“We thought him dead, he was not. ‘Tis a long story for some other time.” Thor turned to look at Tyr again. “Back to you.”

“’Twas not done out of cruelty,” Tyr said, getting to his feet. “’Twas simply what would be best for Asgard. You cannot rule based on love and loyalty alone.”

“Indeed?” Thor said, bending to pick up Tyr’s sword and holding it out to him, hilt first. “Then I suppose you had better kill me right now.”

“Thor!” Balder gasped.

“I cannot do that,” Tyr protested.

“No? ‘Tis what would be best for Asgard.”

Tyr raised the sword, discomfort in his eyes. Thor stared at him, and Tyr lowered the sword again. “This is madness.”

“How so? I am a danger to Asgard, am I not? You are sworn to protect her, are you not? KILL ME!” Thor bellowed.

Tyr screamed and swung the sword at Thor’s neck. At the last moment, he tilted it so it merely skimmed the top of Thor’s head. A few blond strands of hair fell to the ground, and Tyr dropped the sword and sank to his knees. Balder began breathing again.

“So love and loyalty are not enough, hm?” Thor whispered. He held out a hand and pulled Tyr to his feet. Tyr’s face was wet with tears. Thor regarded him for a moment before hauling his fist back and punching his old teacher straight in the jaw. Tyr went flying.

“The cost for restoring this hamlet town will come out of your coffers,” Thor snarled.

*****  
The Vane sorcerer who had assisted Tyr and Helblindi in their travel between worlds was exhausted after transporting the Jotuns back to Jotunheim, and wishing to remain discreet, Thor and Balder elected to stay for the next five days, until the Bifrost finally was stable enough to reach anywhere. They spent the time sequestered with Njord and Freya, and when they finally left, Njord had agreed to begin transferring power to his daughter, leaving her in charge of his lands.

“’Tis a cruel thing, when someone’s mind goes,” Thor muttered. “Half the time, I think he mistook me for our father.”

“He’s been unwell for a long time,” Balder said. “Vanaheim has been fractured as a result of it – their rule depends on each landholder actually holding his or her land. However, Freya and I could not convince him to relinquish his control. In that sense, this whole mess was a fortuitous event – it provided a disaster so large not even he could forget once he knew of it.”

“Let us hope this is a true turn for the better,” Thor said, before raising his face to the sky. “Heimdall? Open the Bifrost. Bring us home, please.”

Balder raised an eyebrow at the ‘please’, but refrained from saying anything. 

As the Bifrost opened and they were hurled through dimensional space back to Asgard, Thor found himself both hoping and dreading that Jane would be there, waiting for him. He longed to see her, but at the same time, there were certain things he had to say that he didn’t want to say. 

Jane was there, and she even put down her book and pen when they arrived and threw herself at Thor. “You’re back! I’m so happy you’re back!”

Thor hugged her back. “Hello, Jane Foster."

“They’re going to kiss any moment now,” announced Darcy from the doorway. “Hey. You’ll be Balder, then. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Your parents have requested, through me, that you come see them the moment you arrive,” Heimdall said. “Balder, of course, for having finally returned, but Thor as well – they wish to ask some questions about your handling of this whole situation.”

“That sounds ominous,” Thor muttered.

“I’ll go wait for you at Bilskirne,” Jane said. “I’ve finally managed to crack the code of your magi-science-babble, so I’ve got plenty to occupy me in the meantime.” And I’ll be there when you get back and maybe need a comforting shoulder to lean on, she carefully didn’t say out loud, but Thor seemed to hear it anyway, because he smiled gently at her and pressed his lips to her palm. 

*****  
Jane emerged from a science-filled daze three hours later, when Thor entered the house. She’d set up shop in the reading room at the bottom floor, where a direct path to the Grand Royal Library had been set. She was aching to find out how, exactly, they’d managed to connect a door and corridor to the library’s antechamber, so it only took her a minute to walk to a place at least thirty miles away. 

Thor didn’t come immediately to see her. Instead, she heard him move to what he’d vaguely referred to as the “repair room”, which she would have called a combined smithy-workshop. When she hesitantly followed him and peeked in the door, she saw him remove his armour, put it on the anvil and pull out Mjolnir. He began twirling the hammer in a strange pattern before bringing it down on the armour. The sound was loud, but more than that, it seemed to resonate within her very bones. Jane shivered.

“Thor?” she asked, when he stopped hammering.

“Yes?”

“What are you doing?”

“Repairing my armour. There were some dents.”

“But,” Jane protested, “your armour is magical. You summon it in a flash of lightning.”

“It still needs maintenance,” Thor replied, turning to her. He was dressed down in soft, tan deerskin breeches with leather cord tied around the calves in a zigzag pattern and a sleeveless shirt of lamb’s wool in a mild white colour with red thread around the edges. It looked comfortable, but also plain enough that one wouldn’t expect a prince to be wearing it. For some reason, the outfit seemed very intimate, like he was almost undressed despite showing less skin than he had in the hospital gown in Puente Antiguo. 

Jane carefully kept from fidgeting. An unexplained dread was filling her belly, and she studiously ignored it. “So, how did the meeting with your parents go?”

Thor thought for a moment. “Strangely,” he said. “Father said that I handled the situation differently than he would have. I said that perhaps so, but I was not him, and he would simply have to settle for me and hope I was good enough. And he said...” Thor paused before continuing in a voice that said plainly that he could scarcely believe what he had heard, “...he said of that, he had less hope than certainty.”

Jane blinked. “Meaning...he trusts in your abilities?” Thor nodded. “But that’s great, isn’t it?” Jane exclaimed.

“Yes, it is,” Thor said, sounding somewhat overwhelmed. Jane grinned at him and walked over to give him a hug. He carefully put his arms around her in return, and for a while, they simply stood there, taking simple enjoyment in each other’s presence. 

Finally, Thor pulled away. “Jane...I must tell you something. Please, will you listen?”

“Of course,” Jane said, nervousness returning. Thor looked awfully serious, and...was that guilt in his eyes?”

“I...Jane, I broke the Bifrost bridge earlier.”

Jane blinked. “Yeah, I know. You told me that already.”

Thor turned from her, not meeting her eyes. “I had to. It would have ripped Jotunheim apart. I could not keep my promise to you – my promise to return.”

“Thor, I know all that. It’s okay. Seriously.”

“But can you forgive me what I’ll say next? Jane, if the same situation happened again, if there was nothing else to do...I’d do the same. I would break my path to you, even if I believed that it meant I’d not see you again.”

Jane’s heart clenched.

Thor continued, the words spilling from his tongue like something bitter, but he was unable to stop speaking them. “There will be times when I cannot be attentive to your needs, because duty demands my attention elsewhere. There will be times when I must be apart from you for lengthy periods at a time. I may be forced to leave you to your own struggles too often for my liking. Jane...I’m sorry, but if I have to choose between you and a world, I will have to choose the world.” He shook his head. “’Twould be better were you to find someone who’ll give you the attention you so deserve.”

Jane blinked. “Are you...” she said carefully, “Are you breaking up with me before we even got properly together?”

“I suppose I am,” Thor sighed. “Jane...I love you. I _adore_ you. But I cannot be the man you deserve.”

He turned to leave the room. Jane sprinted after him, grabbed a hold of his arm, and when she failed to spin him around (because he was five times her weight), she spun herself around him, so she was facing him. 

“Damn right, you’re not the man I deserve – the man I deserve wouldn’t make that sort of decision without consulting me first!” Jane snarled at him. At Thor’s startled look, she continued. “So you’d pick saving an entire world over getting to see me again. Well, I damn well hope so! You have your job, I have mine. I wouldn’t _want_ you to spend every waking moment catering to my needs. Argh!” She threw her hands in the air. “Why are you being such a...such a _guy_ about this?”

“Jane?”

“It’s like what you said when you called me after the battle in New York,” Jane said. “You said I didn’t have to be concerned about your problems. Well, maybe I want to be, ever thought of that? Maybe I want to share your concerns, just like I’ll want to share my concerns with you. So sometimes we have to spend time on our own jobs. Big deal. It’s supposed to be a partnership, right?”

Thor’s eyes were very round. Jane smiled up at him. “I want to listen to you vent about your problems, just like I want you to listen when I vent. I don’t _want_ to, but I’m willing to, take time away from my work to accompany you to state functions or whatever, just like you should come with me to conferences for moral support and that sort of thing. I’ve met your parents, you should meet my mom. I realise that we’ll have to negotiate our time together, but Thor, don’t you dare give up on us before we’ve even begun.”

“We are very different. Are you certain this will not end in tears?”

“Of course I’m not sure,” Jane replied. “I just think it’s better to try than not to. I’ll give you a kick in the pants when you’re being a butthead, and you can...I don’t know, kidnap me from the lab if I’ve gone a few days without eating again.”

“Again?” Thor asked, a dangerous note in his voice. Jane laughed. 

“See? We’re already good together.” She smiled gently up at him. “I just...I think it’s worth a go.” She laughed again.

“What is it?”

“Oh, nothing. Just something your father said. I realised that the answer is ‘yeah, I’ll be able to do that’.” 

“Jane.” Thor’s big fingers were caressing her face. Jane grabbed the front of his shirt, and he allowed her to pull his head down far enough that she could wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him deeply. 

They stood for a long time, locked in one another’s embrace, before Jane broke away and smiled up at Thor in a way that should have been coy, but was too openly happy for that. “Hey, wanna go see how compatible we really are?”

Thor grinned. “Your chambers or mine?”

*****  
Sometime that night, Thor awoke from his slumber, feeling eyes upon him. He sat up in bed, peering closely at the window, but couldn’t make out anything. Next to him, Jane murmured in her sleep and snuggled closer. Thor looked at her tenderly before shaking the sensation from his mind and lying back down, pulling Jane in to rest against him.

The ravens outside the window flew away, until they alighted on the outstretched arm of Odin Allfather.

“I need no details,” Odin said, because there were some details a father did not need about his son. “Simply tell me this: Will he be well?”

“We cannot see the future,” Huginn said.

“Nor the past,” said Muninn. 

“Merely the present.”

“And then we allow you to draw conclusions from that.”

“He sensed us, but didn’t see us.”

“None can see us unless we allow it.”

“So his mind has cleared enough to sense something, at least,” Odin mused.

“The mortal woman seemed pleased.”

“She sought him in her sleep.”

“He’s been considerate of her needs, then,” Odin said, not wanting to pursue that further.

“His brow was unfurrowed, his eyes, though sleepy, were clear.”

“His shoulders were relaxed.”

“Will he be well?”

“You tell us.”

“It would seem so,” Odin said. “For the time being. That is one son more untroubled, one son returned – shall we go try bringing the last one back?”

The ravens stayed on his shoulders as he walked to Loki’s cell. Loki looked up at him when he drew close.

“You alerted Heimdall,” Odin said without any preamble.

“I did.”

“Why?”

Loki shrugged. “No reason.”

Odin looked at him for a long time. Finally, he said, “I have something for you to do, should you agree to.”

Loki raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

“We have had two very cold winters since you tried to destroy Jotunheim,” Odin said.

Loki snorted. “If it’s the weather you need changed, you are talking to the wrong s... the wrong person. Why ask me?”

“They may not be natural winters.”

“All the more reason to speak to someone else. What is so strange about these winters? They are cold, so what of it?”

“Fimbul.” 

Loki looked at him sharply. “That’s just a legend,” he said, his voice harsh.

“Perhaps so, perhaps not,” Odin replied. “Did the legend exist in the other realities you saw?”

“The mortal girl told you.”

“She did not.” Odin reached up one hand to scratch Muninn’s crest feathers. “However, none can see the ravens if they choose not to be seen.” He pulled two heavy tomes from under his cape. “Would you care to find out if the legends are true?” He tossed the books through the walls of the cage, where they landed at Loki’s feet.

Loki picked them up and regarded Odin suspiciously. “Why ask me?”

Odin smiled at him. “Because inactivity suits you ill.”

“Is that all? I was wondering if this was some scheme to see if I truly wish the worlds to end.” He raised an eyebrow. “And after this, what then? Will I return to being your placid, obedient son?”

“You cannot return to what you’ve never been,” Odin replied, then added when he noticed the flash of hurt in Loki’s eyes, “there are many words I could use to describe you, but placid and obedient are not two of them.”

“ _Am_ I still your son?” Both of them chose to ignore the waver in Loki’s voice when he asked the question.

Odin looked him squarely in the eyes. “Do you wish to be?”

*****  
The reopening of the Bifrost bridge was an occasion for a grand feast. At the same time, they were celebrating the return of Prince Balder, and the beginning of negotiating for a more cordial relationship with Jotunheim upon the return of the Cradle. Fewer of the feast participants were sure why that was cause for celebration, but it was mentioned in the same breath as the other reasons, so they shrugged and accepted it. 

Jane had drunk enough mead that sitting on Thor’s lap in public seemed like a fantastic idea. Darcy was very carefully not laughing at the sight of a tipsy Jane on Thor’s lap drawing complex equations in some spilled soup while Thor was discussing politics with Sif and Balder.

“I believe I should return to Midgard soon,” Thor was saying. “We’ve had two visits in less than ideal circumstances. I should go to open diplomatic relations, perhaps set up an embassy.”

Darcy’s head swivelled to him so quickly that her neck actually hurt – though she ignored it. “Really? Tell me more,” she breathed. 

“You also have to meet my mom,” Jane said, poking Thor in his chest. 

“Of course. I promised so, did I not?”

“First I gotta go on a dimension-hopping science road trip, though,” Jane said. “I wanna see what the different planets see when they stand in approximately the same place, looking in the same direction, so I can try to figure out where they are compared to each other.”

“I’ll accompany you,” Sif said quickly. 

“You’ll be in good hands, then,” Thor said, folding powerful arms around Jane’s waist and resting his chin on the top of her head. Jane sighed happily.

Darcy frowned. “Waitaminute. You guys,” she gestured at Thor and Jane, “just got together again after nearly two years apart, and now you’re going separate ways again?”

“Only for a short period of time,” Jane said, and Thor murmured his agreement. 

“Besides, this means we will have all the more stories to tell one another when we’re reunited,” he said.

Darcy frowned. “Look, maybe that’s okay for you guys, you live for ages. But for Jane?”

“I’m okay with it, Darce.”

“But...”

“Darcy Lewis, your world has something of an assembly for all the world’s nations, does it not?”

“Yeah, the UN. Why?” Darcy peered suspiciously at Thor.

“I intend to address them. Would you advise me as to the best way to go about that?”

Darcy whimpered. “Dammit.” She turned to Jane. “Sorry, boss. Sisterhood loyalty only goes so far.”

“Go have fun, you fantastic political scientist, you,” Jane said fondly, snuggling back further into Thor’s embrace.

Balder laughed. “You ladies are a delight. If this is what Midgardians are like, then I envy Thor for going there. It makes more sense, though,” he added, turning to Thor. “You have already forged connections there. And this means I am left holding Asgard in your stead, I suppose.”

“Father is not dead yet,” Thor replied, humour in his voice. “I have been thinking, though. Perhaps it would be better if we shared duties between us. Tyr was right about one thing. If the people fear me, then I cannot reign. If I show my willingness to share power, it might assuage some of that fear.”

Sif frowned. “I liked him,” she said. “Once I showed I could fight, he would never let anyone say anything about my doing so.”

“I liked him too,” Thor said. “He delivered some much needed lessons, and he has always been very loyal to Asgard. I doubt that has changed, to be honest.”

“What will happen to him?” Darcy asked.

Balder was the one who answered. “He has expressed a willingness to make reparations for his actions. He will be given opportunities to do so. He will be watched closely, and if he does nothing more untrustworthy for half a century, he will be tested. Depending on the result, he’ll be reinstated or...not.”

“Tested?”

“Someone, most likely Mother, will walk the pathways of his mind, looking for treacherous intent. It’s not something we do often. Grandfather was very fond of the technique, which might be why Father disapproves of it.”

“According to everything I have heard of him, your grandfather was a tyrant,” Sif said, taking a gulp of her mead. One didn’t _sip_ mead. Balder inclined his head in assent.

“So does rebelling against your parents run in the family, or what?” Jane asked.

“We’re not rebelling,” Thor said, and Balder nodded. “We’re simply testing the boundaries to find a path we’re comfortable walking, without leaving Asgard in the lurch.” He unfolded one arm from around Jane’s waist and touched Balder’s shoulder briefly before reaching out to clasp Sif’s hand.

“Father’s rule has always been a solitary one, with only Mother as support, if her. There is a council, of course, but none of them are his personal supporters – their duties lie elsewhere. I find I cannot work that way. I must have people I trust around me, the more the better, and I don’t mind sharing my responsibilities with them.”

“Oh, thank you so much,” Balder said dryly.

Jane laughed. “So, I don’t have to be the only one to watch your back then.”

“Excuse me?” Sif said, faking affront. “I was doing that long before you were even born, Doctor Jane.”

“Aww, I’m sorry,” Jane said, sliding off Thor’s lap to go hug Sif. Sif blinked very rapidly for a moment before tentatively returning the hug.

Darcy laughed. “Either way, it looks like things are gonna get interesting around here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Fimbul: In _Voluspá_ , the Fimbul winters are the three winters that precede Ragnarok.
> 
> That was it! The story is over! Except maybe not. I have some ideas for a sequel, though given how hard it was to actually write this one, I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to it...


End file.
